Sure it can and it has been done multiple times, although the industry hasn't cared much besides high integrity software, where software errors cost human lives.

For an example, check the "Project Oberon" book.

http://people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth/ProjectOberon/index.html

The revised 2013 version, with its own FPGA as replacement for the Ceres Workstation hardware of the original version.