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Rohit BajajFlag for India

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Is chrome architecture specific

Hi,
Are the softwares like chrome, Intellij etc architecture specific ?
Like if make an executable of a c program that executable may not run on a different laptop with the same operating system.
Will that be the case for chrome , Intellij etc..
As i saw that chrome is built in C++ so either there is a same build for all computers with windows operating system say version 10 (which could probably be the case if its written in a architecture independent way or compiled that way). or there will be different chromes for different computer architectures..

Thanks
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arnold
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Dr. Klahn

Programs are necessarily architecture specific and I know of no program that will run on every PC -- except for DOS, and that won't run on a UEFI system.

First there's 16-bit vs 32-bit vs 64-bit architecture.  A lower-bit architecture can't run higher-bit programs.

There there's CPU features.  A program which uses, e.g., MMX cannot run on a 486.

So yes, all programs are architecture specific and Chrome is not an exception.  Today it is usually "32-bit version" vs "64-bit version" to encourage maximum interchangeability but this comes at a performance cost.  A program compiled for a specific architecture which takes advantage of the particular features of that architecture will always run faster than one compiled for maximum hardware compatibility.