system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 : What does hardware-based platform mean in programming?

How does hardware based platform work and how does it differ from platforms that are independent from the underlying hardware like Java?
gpt
It means the program you are creating is targeting a specific piece of hardware, and won't work on anything else \*.

For example if you're making a PS4 game, that game will only work on a PS4. If you want to make it work on Xbox, you have to replace some of the code with Xbox specific stuff, and recompile it for Xbox.

Compare that to Java, where a Java program can work on different types of hardware as long as they have a version of the Java runtime. It can run on a standard x86 based PC, but it would also work on a machine which has a different type of CPU and/or OS. The Java Runtime handles all the stuff that's necessary to interface with the hardware and OS, instead of your program doing it. You don't need to make separate versions for those platforms.

\* Unless that other hardware has specifically been designed to support software for an older platform, e.g. PS5 will run PS4 games.