These machines often run one version of Microsoft Windows, though they can run other OSs including Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, macOS and FreeBSD. For example: x86 architecture and its variants such as IA-32 and x86-64.
For example, the Java platform is a common VM platform which runs on many OSs and hardware types.Ī hardware platform can refer to an instruction set architecture. Applications can be written to depend on the features of a particular platform-either the hardware, OS, or virtual machine (VM) it runs on. There are, however, many devices such as smartphones that are also platforms. Other well-known desktop platforms are Linux/ Unix and macOS - both of which are themselves cross-platform. An example of a common platform is the Microsoft Windows OS running on the x86 architecture. Platform can refer to the type of processor (CPU) or other hardware on which an operating system (OS) or application runs, the type of OS, or a combination of the two.
