Prior to Release 6.10, SAP Basis was the central platform for all SAP applications written in ABAP. Consists of the following components: presentation, ABAP Workbench, kernel, and administration services. SAP Basis guarantees that the ABAP application programs are independent of the hardware, the operating system, and the database. ABAP programs can be executed only in an SAP Basis system. An stand-alone SAP Basis without any application components is the smallest possible ABAP-based ABAP system. As of Release 6.1, the functions of the SAP Basis are integrated into the SAP Application Server. The SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP provides the ABAP runtime environment.