Intel defines a platform as an integrated set of ingredients that enables targeted usage models, grows existing markets and creates new markets, and which delivers greater end-user benefits than the sum of its parts.

A platform is not just a processor and supporting software; it includes hardware, software, services and more (see below), and cuts across the entire computer ecosystem. This platform approach is fundamental to taking computing to the next level — to delivering a personalized experience through a pervasive and intelligent compute environment. Platforms deliver increased value for end-users. An Intel® platform has all the necessary components, in the right mix and integrated smoothly, to provide a compelling end-user experience.

A platform is the home — not just the framing, wiring, and plumbing, but the entire structure after it is designed, built, painted, and furnished. In today's world, the definition of a platform has had to expand from a simple pairing of hardware and software components, to include services, technologies and more — and no one can deliver it the way Intel can.

For example, Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology is a critical ingredient in providing an end-user experience unique to the customers it addresses. However, Intel Centrino mobile technology–based devices are not platforms in and of themselves.

The platform is the aggregate of several important components, such as: an Intel® Core™ Duo processor and compatible Intel® Chipset, a lightweight form-factor for mobility, technologies to provide great battery life, enabling the ability to work almost anywhere you want without needing a power socket, wireless capabilities that enable the ability to connect in almost any location equipped with private and public hotspots, and sophisticated applications that use the mobile form-factor efficiently. An Intel Centrino mobile technology-based product is the sum of a set of parts that provides the valuable end-user experience — it is not just a device, but a platform.

There are five major ingredients in Intel platforms:

• Hardware, such as processors, chipsets, communications, memory, boards, and systems.
• Software, such as operating systems (OSs), applications, firmware, and compilers.
• Technologies, such as Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology), Intel® Virtualization Technology, Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology (Intel® I/OAT), and Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT).
• Standards and initiatives, such as Wi-Fi*, WiMAX, the Wireless Verification Program, and so on.
• Services, such as digital media distribution, communications services, and system management services.

There are also external elements that make a comprehensive platform come together, such as standards, development tools, marketing initiatives, and infrastructures.

For a platform to be truly valuable, all of these elements and ingredients must work seamlessly together to create a useful and cohesive end-user experience.

Explore more at the following links:

• Intel Centrino mobile technology
• Intel® Viiv™ technology
• Intel® vPro™ technology
• Intel® Core™ microarchitecture
• Intel’s Platform Vision
• Intel Multi-Core
• Intel Platforms: Innovation Beyond Processors