Systems or components, possibly from different origins, working together to perform some task. Interworking depends crucially on standards to define the interfaces between the components. The term implies that there is some difference between the components which, in the absence of common standards, would make it unlikely that they could be used together. For example, software from different companies, running on different hardware and {operating systems} can interwork via standard network {protocols}. (1998-11-22)
