architecture

The term architecture refers to the hardware, software or combination of hardware and software comprising a computer system or network. The term open architecture is used to describe computer and network components that are more readily interconnected and interoperable. Conversely, the term closed architecture describes components that are less readily interconnected and interoperable.

The kind of computer you're working on, where one "kind" of computer means all those computers sharing a compatible machine language. Since Perl programs are (typically) simple text files, not executable images, a Perl program is much less sensitive to the architecture it's running on than programs in other languages, such as C, that are compiled into machine code. See also "platform" and "operating system".

See computer architecture, network architecture.