A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

is executed. It may be the hardware or the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

(OS), even a

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

and associated

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

s, or other underlying software, as long as the

program code A computer language is a formal language used to communicate with a computer. Types of computer languages include: * Construction language – all forms of communication by which a human can specify an executable problem solution to a compu ...

is executed with it. Computing platforms have different

abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abst ...

levels, including a computer architecture, an OS, or runtime libraries. 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 assistant to the development process, in that they provide low-level functionality ready-made. 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 Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

Components

Platforms may also include: * Hardware alone, in the case of small

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded ...

s. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS; this is referred to as running on " bare metal". * A browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a hardware+OS 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 application-specific

scripting language A scripting language or script language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. Scripting languages are usually interpreted at runtime rather than compiled. A scripting ...

, such as an Excel macro. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...

suite as a platform. * Software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. *

Cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...

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. The social networking sites

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

are also considered development platforms. * 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 Bytecode (also called portable code or p-code) is a form of instruction set designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter. Unlike human-readable source code, bytecodes are compact numeric codes, constants, and references (norma ...

, 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

Desktop, laptop, server

* AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4 * ChromeOS *

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...

and

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

***

EulerOS EulerOS is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Huawei for enterprise applications. It was first released on September 24, 2021. Huawei has released a community edition of EulerOS, OpenEuler, along with the source code on Gitee. KunLun ...

** FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD **

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

** IBM AIX ** HP-UX ** Solaris and illumos ** Tru64 UNIX * IBM i *

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

* OpenVMS * Classic Mac OS - discontinued in 2011 * OS/2 * QNX * Midrange computers with their custom operating systems * Mainframe computers with their custom operating systems ** VM ** z/OS

Mobile

Android_Nougat_screenshot_20170116-070000

* Android * Bada - discontinued in 2013 * BlackBerry OS - discontinued in 2013 *

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion). BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system that was ...

- discontinued in 2022 * Embedded Linux * Fire OS * Firefox OS - discontinued in 2016 *

HarmonyOS HarmonyOS (HMOS) () is a distributed operating system developed by Huawei to collaborate and interconnect with multiple smart devices on the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. In its current multi-kernel design, the operating system select ...

on Huawei smartphones models and Huawei MatePad tablets * iOS * iPadOS * kaiOS * LuneOS * Newton OS on Newton devices from Apple * Palm OS - discontinued in 2011 * Symbian - discontinued in 2012 * Sailfish OS * Tizen * Ubuntu Touch * WebOS * Windows Mobile - discontinued in 2010 *

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

- discontinued in 2017

Software examples

* Shockwave *

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (Brew MP, Brew, Qualcomm BREW, or BREW) is an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party applications such ...

(BREW) *

Cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter an ...

Cocoa Touch Cocoa Touch is the application development environment for building software programs to run on iOS for the iPhone and iPod Touch, iPadOS for the iPad, watchOS for the Apple Watch, and tvOS for the Apple TV, from Apple Inc. Cocoa Touch ...

* .NET **

Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanes ...

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe's runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a very small number of browsers. Whi ...

* Flash ** AIR * GNU *

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

** Java ME ** Java SE ** Java EE ** JavaFX ** JavaFX Mobile * LiveCode *

Microsoft XNA Microsoft XNA (a recursive acronym for XNA's not acronymed) is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on ...

Mozilla Prism Mozilla Prism (formerly WebRunner) is a discontinued project which integrated web applications with the desktop, allowing web applications to be launched from the desktop and configured independently of the default web browser. As of November 201 ...

, XUL and XULRunner * Mozilla WebExtensions API is modeled after Google Chrome's API. Thus Firefox extensions are now largely compatible with their Chrome counterparts. * Web platform *

Oracle Database Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle DBMS, Oracle Autonomous Database, or simply as Oracle) is a multi-model database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation. It is a database commonly used for running online ...

* Qt * SAP NetWeaver *

Smartface Smartface is a mobile technology company focusing on enterprise mobility in the cloud for mobile transformation in enterprises. Smartface is headquartered in Palo Alto with offices in New Jersey, Istanbul and Dubai. Smartface Cloud, a cloud-ba ...

* Universal Windows Platform ** Windows Runtime * HMS Core * Cangjie

Hardware examples

* ARM architecture based devices ** Raspberry Pi or Gumstix full function miniature computers ** ARM servers with

systems such as

or BSD variants ** ChromeBooks from various manufacturers *

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones ...

systems *

IBM System p The IBM System p is a high-end line of RISC (Power)/ UNIX-based servers. It was the successor of the RS/6000 line, and predecessor of the IBM Power Systems server series. History The previous RS/6000 line was originally a line of workstation ...

and IBM Power Systems computers * IBM

z/Architecture z/Architecture, initially and briefly called ESA Modal Extensions (ESAME), is IBM's 64-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architecture, implemented by its mainframe computers. IBM introduced its first z/Architect ...

mainframes *

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initi ...

computers based on the S-100 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 *

Supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructio ...

architectures

References

External links

*
Ryan Sarver: What is a platform?
{{Computer science