hardware platforms

hardware platforms

Each hardware platform, or CPU family, has a unique machine language. All software presented to the computer for execution must be in the binary coded machine language of that CPU. Following is a list of the major hardware platforms in existence today. See platform.

     CISC chips
     Platform  Developed by and usage
     x86       Intel, AMD, Cyrix (all PCs)
     IA-64     Intel
     68K       Motorola, mostly earlier Macintoshes
     VAX       Digital's mini series, VMS OS
     S/370     IBM mainframes
     S/390     IBM mainframes
     AS/400    IBM midrange, formerly System/38
     S/36      old IBM mini, System/36
     Tandem    fault tolerant systems, Non-Stop
     Unisys    Unisys mainframes
     PDP/11    Digital's 1st mini

     RISC chips
     Platform  Developed by and usage
     88000     Motorola, DG, Encore
     MIPS      SGI, Pyramid, Tandem, NEC, Siemens
     SPARC     Sun and SPARC-licensed clones
     PA-RISC   HP workstations, servers
     Alpha     HP servers (originally from DEC)
     PowerPC   Apple, IBM, Motorola
     i860      Intel, Stratus systems
     ARM       Arm, Ltd., embedded systems, NCs