Does an operating system design for specific processors or all types of processors?

Question

I need to know Does a operating system design for specific processors category? and also can any operating system run on any microprocessor?

Answer 1

Historically, operating systems have been designed for specific hardware. In some cases, such as eunuchs, the system was reworked so that it could be ported to multiple systems.

M$ ported Windoze to the Alpha processor in order to placate Digital and avoid lawsuits.

[C]an any operating system run on any microprocessor?

No.

Answer 2

Generally speaking, an operating system is not designed for a specific processor; though some do make assumptions about the hardware and computer system over all that might not be available in all systems. That said, for an operating system to run on a partical architecture, there is usually code that performs some specific, critical functions that is implemented for a specific architecture, frequently being written in assembly (I know of no OS that doesn't do this). To enable a new architecture, this code needs to be rewritten for the new machine, so that means new assembly most of the time. As mentioned in the comments, there are operating systems that only run on a single architecture like Windows, while others have these specific components for a number of architectures and thus can run on a number of processors like Linux. Note however the same exactly binary will not run across architectures, the operating system needs to be rebuilt for each architecture and possibly even for the same architecture if the system itself is different enough (as can be the case with some small MCUs).

So to answer your two questions directly: no, an OS is not uaually designed for a specific processor, and no, any OS cannot run on any processor.