A control system is disclosed for controlling the movements of a plurality of mechanical units. The control system includes a plurality of independent control units, each including one or more control programs having instructions for controlling movements of at least one mechanical unit, and software for executing the control programs, wherein each control unit is configured to be put into any of a plurality of different states independent of states of remaining control units. A single server unit contains the plurality of independent control units, the server including memory for storing the control programs and the software for executing the control programs, a processor having at least one core, communication hardware for communicating with a network, and a resource-distributing unit adapted to distribute real and virtual hardware resources of the server unit to the control units, such that the control units share the real and virtual hardware resources of the server unit.