The Spark Blog
Before A2A Was a Buzzword—My Distributed Agent System from 1988
Now that everyone is talking about AI Agents, how they communicate with data, and how Agents communicate between themselves using A2A (Agent to Agent) protocols, it reminds me of something I built back in 1988.
𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟖.
I had developed a system that embodied these similar principles, long before the terminology or current technology existed. I even recorded a short demo video to send to potential buyers.
In the clip below, I demonstrate a setup of:
o five PCs and,
o a 3Com File Server with a whopping 80MB of storage (which cost a fortune back then)
o over Coax Cable 10Mbits/sec Ethernet LAN and NetBIOS stack.
The system connected two applications to distributed software components I called “Slaves,” what we now refer to as Agents.
At the core was a dedicated Transaction Manager, running on its own PC, monitoring and authorizing every single request. It controlled all interactions between the apps and the agents, and between the agents themselves.
The final scene shows the two agents exchanging data directly and reporting back. Everything was secured, controlled, and traceable.
What happened to it?
The system was acquired later that year by a Paris based subsidiary of Alcatel.
P.S. The original audio was in French :) by me
