Zinc is available for desktop and embedded platforms. Zinc for desktop relies on the underlying operating system functionality and maps the look and feel of the underlying platform to Zinc objects. Zinc for embedded is available for real time operating systems such as Wind River's VxWorks. Typically, these platforms do not have any graphic functionality. Zinc for VxWorks requires Wind River's WindML, a 2D multimedia stack, which provides the functionality required to implement the Zinc API for an embedded system, including output and input drivers. The look and feel of Zinc's graphic objects is customizable.

Zinc's architecture is platform independent with embedded platform reference implementations for Intel x86, Motorola PPC, MIPS, SH4, and StrongARM. Zinc allows OEMs to quickly develop user interfaces for connected intelligent devices. Zinc for VxWorks is targeted at systems with a ROM footprint of less than 1 MB and processor performance of less than 150 Drystone MIPS.