V8 JavaScript Engine
 |
| Developer(s) |
Google |
| Stable release |
3.11.8[1] / May 31, 2012; 2 months ago (2012-05-31) |
| Development status |
Active |
| Programming language used |
C++, JavaScript, assembly |
| Operating system |
Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Android, webOS, Google Chrome OS |
| Platform |
x86[2], x86-64,[2] ARM,[2] MIPS[3] |
| Type |
JavaScript engine |
| License |
BSD |
| Website |
code.google.com/p/v8 |
The V8 JavaScript Engine is an open source JavaScript engine developed by Google. It ships with the Google Chrome web browser.[4] As of 2012, the head programmer is Lars Bak.[5]
V8 increases performance by compiling JavaScript to native machine code (x86,[2] ARM,[2] or MIPS[3] CPUs), before executing it, versus executing bytecode or interpreting it. Further performance increases are achieved by employing optimization methods such as inline caching.
Details
The garbage collector of V8 is a generational incremental collector.[6] The V8 assembler is based on the Strongtalk assembler.[7] On 7 December 2010, a new compiling infrastructure named Crankshaft was released, with speed improvements.[8]
MIPS port
A port to little endian MIPS was released with v8 version 3.7[3].[who?]
Usage
V8 is intended to be used both in a browser (notably in Chrome and Chromium browsers) and as a standalone high performance engine that can be integrated into independent projects, for example server-side JavaScript in Node.js.[9]
See also
References
External links
