A research team at University College Cork is aiming to overcome communication problems between computers and to get them talking a common language.
The Anyware project has been funded by a £326,000 grant from Teltec Ireland, which is part of Enterprise Ireland, and will use the "unified computing approach" developed by the Centre for Unified Computing in the college to tackle the problem.
Dr John P Morrison of UCC's computer science department explained the aim was to build a platform which would allow different software and systems to communicate.
By doing so the spare computing power not being used by each desktop can be networked and combined to create a virtual super-computer - which would normally cost millions - for free.
A "superuser" could then use this massed computing power to carry out large computations while users could continue working on their computers as normal, according to Dr Morrison.
One application, for example, would allow a business draw data from all over a company, including credit, debits, wages and stocks, to get the financial state of the company at any time.
Dr Morrison said "islands of information" are created in most companies that cannot be accessed by employees in different sections because of incompatible software and systems.
With the Anyware system, accessing any information and communicating with any section would be possible. Unified computing involves combining the three models of computing now in use to find a new way of putting instructions together. The imperative model, which means the computer follows a sequential list of instructions, is most used in current software.
However, Dr Morrison said this restricts the carrying out of tasks as each task cannot be done until the previous task is completed. He said it would be like building a house only allowing one tradesman to work at any one time.
But unifying the models of computing - the "Eager", in which a computer carries out a task whenever it can; the "Lazy", and the "Imperative" - allows any number of tasks to be completed simultaneously. The approach will also be used to develop a universal platform for business-to-business activity on the Internet.
As a result of the large number of applications available, for example, a company which uses Java software and wishes to trade with another, which uses Windows Bcom, cannot. Due to this, most transactions are still settled offline and buyers have to go to different exchanges for different products.
With Anyware, businesses would be able to find the best price for their products across all exchanges and complete the transaction regardless of the connection software or middleware they use.