Java Virtual Machine - Resource Guide
Jon Meyer
May 1997

This page contains pointers to useful online things involving the Java Virtual Machine. I will be expanding this page as I come across more useful things. Please email me at meyer@cs.nyu.edu if you have things that I could add to this page.

Books

Java Virtual Machine

A programmer's hands-on view of the Java Virtual Machine, with code examples and an approachable style. See Online Reference Pages.

Java Virtual Machine Specification

The official Java Virtual Machine Specification, which gives a detailed step-by-step analysis of the JVM. See also the online Acrobat/Postscrit version of the book.

Projects

dJVM - Defensive Java Virtual Machine

A formal model of the Java Virtual Machine from CLI, for exploring security issues in the JVM.

Kimera - A Java security architecture

Kimera is developing a suite of tools for creating a centralized security architecture based on the Java Virtual Machine.

KAFFE

Check out this free Java Virtual Machine Implementation.

TassKaf

This document (written in German) describes a project to implement a Java-subset compiler that outputs Jasmin assembly code. You may not be able to read the document itself, but take heart: There are several interesting postscript docs linked to it which are all in English.

Online Docs

Official 1.0 Spec

An Acrobat version of Sun's Java Virtual Machine Specification that you can download and print.

Old VM Spec

Here is an old copy of the Java Virtual Machine spec I found lying around.

Instruction Reference

A quick reference for all of the JVM instructions, taken from Java Virtual Machine, by Jon Meyer and Troy Downing.

Articles

MIT Java VM Working Group

Email log of an enterprising group of researchers at MIT that are studying ways to enhance the JVM.

Proposal for a simplified class file format

A few gripes about the JVM class file format

Programming Languages

A page giving an overview of programming languages and tools that target the Java Virtual Machine.

Under the Hood: The lean, mean, virtual machine

An article describing the Java Virtual Machine, including a cool simulation applet.

The Unofficial Java Bug Report

Lists lots of interesting problems and issues with the JVM specification.