# 1 Introduction

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1.1 Scope

The Erlang Runtime System Application, ERTS, contains functionality necessary to run the Erlang system.

Note

By default, ERTS is only guaranteed to be compatible with other Erlang/OTP components from the same release as ERTS itself.

For information on how to communicate with Erlang/OTP components from earlier releases, see the documentation of system flag +R in erl(1).

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1.2 Prerequisites

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the Erlang programming language.