interoperability - technical definition

The capability of two or more hardware devices or two or more software routines to work harmoniously together. For example, in an Ethernet network, display adapters, hubs, switches and routers from different vendors must conform to the Ethernet standard and interoperate with each other.

Although executable applications must conform to the CPU standard they run in, this type of compliance is not known as interoperability. The term tends to be widely used with networking equipment. See interoperable.