1. An operating system, executable on a computer system having a plurality of hardware components, configured for handling hardware errors from a hardware component, the operating system comprising: an error signal handler that detects the occurrence of a hardware error and notifies a platform-independent error processing module of the detected hardware error; a platform-independent error processing module that processes the hardware error detected by the error signal handler; and a platform-specific error handler that performs platform-specific error processing of the hardware error in cooperation with the platform-independent error processing module.