computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...

, native software or data-formats are those that were designed to run on a particular

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

. In a more technical sense, native code is code written specifically for a certain

processor Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) **Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit (I ...

. In contrast,

cross-platform software In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

can be run on multiple operating systems and/or

computer architecture In computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. At a more detailed level, the ...

s. For example, a

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

receives its software through a

cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname), a ...

, which contains code that runs natively on the Game Boy. The only way to run this code on another processor is to use an

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use pe ...

, which simulates an actual Game Boy. This usually comes at the cost of speed.

Applications

Something running on a computer natively means that it is running without any external layer requiring fewer software layers. For example, in

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 serv ...

the

Native API The Native API is a lightweight application programming interface (API) used by Windows NT and user mode applications. This API is used in the early stages of Windows NT startup process, when other components and APIs are still unavailable. Ther ...

is an

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 t ...

specific for

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. The first version of Win ...

kernel, which can be used to give access to some kernel functions, which cannot be directly accessed through a more universal

Windows API The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

Operating systems

Used to designate the lowest level of virtualization or the absence of virtualization. For instance the term “Native VM” is used to ensure reference to the lowest level operating system, the one that actually maintains direct control of the hardware when multiple levels of virtualization occur.

Machine code

Machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a ve ...

, also known as native code, is a program which is written in machine language. Machine code is usually considered the lowest level of code for a computer, that, in its lowest level form, is written in binary (0s and 1s), but is often written in hexadecimal or

octal The octal numeral system, or oct for short, is the base-8 number system, and uses the digits 0 to 7. This is to say that 10octal represents eight and 100octal represents sixty-four. However, English, like most languages, uses a base-10 number ...

to make it a little easier to handle. These

instruction sets In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ' ...

are then interpreted by the computer. With this, there is no need for translation. machine code is strictly numerical and usually isn't what programmers program in, due to this complex nature. Machine code is also as close as you can get to the

, so using this language, you are programming specifically for that processor as machine code for each processor may differ. Typically programmers will code in high-level languages such as C,

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

, Pascal, (or other directly compiled languages) which gets translated into

assembly code In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence b ...

, which then translates it into machine code (or in most cases the compiler generates machine code directly). Since each CPU is different, programs need to be recompiled or rewritten in order to work on that CPU.

Data

Applied to

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...

, native data formats or

communication protocol A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchroniza ...

s are those supported by a certain computer hardware or software, with maximal consistency and minimal amount of additional components. For example, EGA and

VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...

video adapters ''natively'' support code page 437. This does not preclude supporting other code pages, but it requires either a font uploading or using graphic modes.

References

Computer jargon {{software-eng-stub