SableVM is a clean room implementation of Java bytecode interpreter implementing the Java virtual machine specification, second edition.

SableVM Project was started from the ground up to build a robust, extremely portable, efficient, and fully specifications-compliant (JVM spec, Java Native Interface, Invocation interface, Debug interface, ...) Java Virtual Machine that would be easy to maintain and to extend.

The core engine is an interpreter which uses state-of-the-art techniques to deliver performance that can approach that of a "naive" just-in-time "JIT" compiler, while retaining the software engineering advantages of interpreters: portability, maintainability and simplicity.

This simplicity makes SableVM's source code very accessible and easy to understand for new users/programmers.

SableVM is Free Software — it is licensed under the less restrictive GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). It also makes use of GNU Classpath (copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation FSF) which is licensed under the GNU General Public License with linking exception.

SableVM is the first Open Source virtual machine for Java to include the support for JVMDI (Java Virtual Machine Debugging Interface) and JDWP (Java Debug Wire Protocol). These standard Java debugging interfaces are used for example by Eclipse to provide a rich and user-friendly Java development environment.

SableVM is being developed by a team of hackers who contribute to the project. Besides mailing lists, developers can usually be reached via an IRC channel on irc.sablevm.org (irc.freenode.net alias) #sablevm.

See also

• SableJIT - a retargettable JIT for SableVM
• Kaffe
• GCJ
• SuperWaba - a minimalistic, Java-like VM designed for PDAs

External links

• SableVM.org
• SableVM Development sub-site
• Informations on debugging with SableVM and Eclipse