Machine dependency is a software application that is designed to operate on a limited selection of computers or hardware devices. Programs with this attribute are optimized for the target hardware (they run faster), but cannot run on other architectures.

Applications that run on many devices and computer platforms are called machine-independent. These programs may run a bit slower, as their programming is more vast, but they have the advantage of flexibility. For example, you could purchase a different computer, but still be able to use the same software suite.

Hardware, Machine, Software terms

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