computing platform a computing platform or digital platform a computing platform is the stage on which computer programs can run a platform can be seen both as a constraint on the software development process in that different platforms provide different functionality and restrictions and as an assistance to the development process in that they provide lowlevel functionality readymade for example an os may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware and provides a generic command for saving files or accessing the network components platforms may also include hardware alone in the case of small embedded systems embedded systems can access hardware directly without an os this is referred to as running on bare metal a browser in the case of webbased software the browser itself runs on a hardwareos platform but this is not relevant to software running within the browser an application such as a spreadsheet or word processor which hosts software written in an applicationspecific scripting language such as an excel macro this can be extended to writing fullyfledged applications with the microsoft office suite as a platform software frameworks that provide readymade functionality cloud computing and platform as a service extending the idea of a software framework these allow application developers to build software out of components that are hosted not by the developer but by the provider with internet communication linking them together a virtual machine vm such as the java virtual machine or net clr applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code known as bytecode which is then executed by the vm a virtualized version of a complete system including virtualized hardware os software and storage these allow for instance a typical windows program to run on what is physically a mac some architectures have multiple layers with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it in general a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it for instance a java program has to be written to use the java virtual machine jvm and associated libraries as a platform but does not have to be adapted to run for the windows linux or macintosh os platforms however the jvm the layer beneath the application does have to be built separately for each os operating system examples further information list of operating systems desktop laptop server amigaos amigaos 4 freebsd netbsd openbsd ibm i linux microsoft windows openvms classic mac os macos os2 solaris tru64 unix vm qnx zos mobile android a popular mobile operating system android bada blackberry os firefox os ios embedded linux palm os symbian tizen webos luneos windows mobile windows phone software frameworks further information software framework binary runtime environment for wireless brew cocoa cocoa touch common language infrastructure cli mono net framework silverlight flash air gnu java platform java me java se java ee javafx javafx mobile livecode microsoft xna mozilla prism xul and xulrunner open web platform oracle database qt sap netweaver shockwave smartface universal windows platform windows runtime vexi hardware examples further information lists of computers ordered roughly from more common types to less common types commodity computing platforms wintel that is intel x86 or compatible personal computer hardware with windows operating system macintosh custom apple inc hardware and classic mac os and macos operating systems originally 68kbased then powerpcbased now migrated to x86 arm architecture based mobile devices iphone smartphones and ipad tablet computers devices running ios also from apple gumstix or raspberry pi full function miniature computers with linux newton devices running the newton os also from apple x86 with unixlike systems such as linux or bsd variants cpm computers based on the s100 bus maybe the earliest microcomputer platform video game consoles any variety playstation xbox nintendo 3do interactive multiplayer that was licensed to manufacturers apple pippin a multimedia player platform for video game console development risc processor based machines running unix variants sparc architecture computers running solaris or illumos operating systems dec alpha cluster running openvms or tru64 unix midrange computers with their custom operating systems such as ibm os400 mainframe computers with their custom operating systems such as ibm zos supercomputer architectures crossplatform platform virtualization third platform wikidata has the property platform p400 see uses ryan sarver what is a platform 