Editing Java virtual machine (section)

{{Short description|Virtual machine that runs Java programs}}
{{Redirect|JVM}}
{{Infobox CPU architecture
| name       = Java virtual machine
| designer   = [[Sun Microsystems]]
| bits       = [[32-bit computing|32-bit]]
| introduced = 1994
| version    = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q251|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| design     = 
| type       = [[Stack machine|Stack]] and [[Load–store architecture|register–register]]
| encoding   = Variable
| branching  = Compare and branch
| endianness = [[Endianness#Big-endian|Big]]
| page size  = 
| extensions = 
| open       = Yes
| registers  = 
| gpr        = Per-method operand stack (up to 65535 operands) plus per-method local variables (up to 65535)
| fpr        = 
}}
[[File:JvmSpec7.png|thumb|Overview of a Java virtual machine (JVM) architecture based on The Java Virtual Machine Specification Java SE 7 Edition]]
A '''Java virtual machine''' ('''JVM''') is a [[virtual machine]] that enables a computer to run [[Java (software platform)|Java]] programs as well as programs written in [[List of JVM languages|other languages]] that are also compiled to [[Java bytecode]]. The JVM is detailed by a [[specification (technical standard)|specification]] that formally describes what is required in a JVM implementation. Having a specification ensures interoperability of Java programs across different implementations so that program authors using the [[Java Development Kit]] (JDK) need not worry about idiosyncrasies of the underlying hardware platform.

The JVM [[reference implementation]] is developed by the [[OpenJDK]] project as [[Open-source software|open source]] code and includes a [[JIT compiler]] called [[HotSpot (virtual machine)|HotSpot]]. The commercially supported Java releases available from [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] are based on the OpenJDK runtime. Eclipse [[OpenJ9]] is another open source JVM for OpenJDK.