the Da Vinci Machine Project

a multi-language renaissance
for the Java Virtual Machine architecture

Mission

We are extending the JVM with first-class architectural support for languages other than Java, especially dynamic languages. This project will prototype a number of extensions to the JVM, so that it can run non-Java languages efficiently, with a performance level comparable to that of Java itself.

Our emphasis is on completing the existing bytecode and execution architecture with general purpose extensions, as opposed to a new feature for just one language, or adjoining an unrelated new execution model.

We want the new languages to co-exist gracefully with Java in the JVM, and to benefit (like Java) from its powerful and mature technologies.

We are looking to remove “pain points” already observed by implementors of successful or influential languages, as opposed to attempting more speculative work on unproven features or niche languages.

Sub-projects with major activity include dynamic invocation, continuations, tail-calls, and interface injection. There is a large number of more speculative, lower-priority sub-projects. These are included in hopes that someone in the community will become excited with us at the prospects of a more dynamic JVM, to the point of sharing in its creation.

Community

Questions? Try our FAQ.
Getting involved:
Prototyping work
- Repository: hg.openjdk.org/mlvm/mlvm, mlvm/hotspot, mlvm/jdk. (Note: It is structured as a forest of patches, not of source files.)
Mailing lists
- mlvm-dev (medium volume as of 7/2009); see archives here.
Documentation
Note: The following are under construction. Perpetually so, since they are wikis. Please join in!
- HotSpot Internals for OpenJDK
- Multi-Language Da Vinci Machine Project
Specification process — JSR 292
- https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=292
- May 2009 enumeration of JSR 292 design issues.
- intermediate draft of the method handle API
- announcing the invokedynamic Early Draft Release
  notes from the 5/2008 JavaOne meeting
Issue list
- (issue management TBD)
Bloggers
- Charles Nutter
- Tobias Ivarsson
Presentations & Articles
- New JDK 7 Feature: Support for Dynamically Typed Languages in the Java Virtual Machine, 2009年07月24日, Sun Developer Network article
- Java yields to other languages on the Java Virtual Machine, 2009年07月16日 Computerworld
- Toward a Renaissance VM, 2009年06月02日 JavaOne TS-5216, San Francisco
- 2009年06月04日 JavaOne BOF-5236, San Francisco
- Collaborating on JVM Futures
  [PDF]
  , 2009年06月01日 CommunityOne, San Francisco
- New JVM Plumbing: Method Handles and More and Channel 9 interview, 2009-05 Lang.NET in Redmond
- Dynamic VM summit, 2009年03月25日 before PyCon in Chicago
- Rémi Forax and Alex Buckley, 2009年02月08日 at FOSDEM in Brussels
- Alex Buckley & Brian Goetz, 2008年12月09日 at Devoxx08 in Antwerp
- JVM Language Summit, 2008年09月24日 at Sun’s Santa Clara campus (more to come in 2009)
- Evolving the Java platform, presented by Ola Bini 2008年03月13日 at QCon London
- New Languages on the JVM: Pain Points and Remedies, presented by John Rose and Charles Nutter 2008年01月28日 at the Microsoft 2008 Lang.NET Symposium
- Off-project, but related: The future will be about programming languages, 2007年09月11日 observations by Ted Neward on the “renaissance”.

Extra! Recently rediscovered diagrams prove Leonardo invented the first JVM:

lost VM invention diagram