HHVM, or HipHop Virtual Machine, is an open-source virtual machine specifically designed for executing programs written in Hack, a programming language. Developed by Meta, formerly known as Facebook[1], HHVM was conceived as a successor to HipHop for PHP (HPHPc). It operates on the principle of Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation, a technique used for efficient code execution. HHVM introduced an intermediate bytecode format known as HHBC, simplifying the processes of development and deployment. It is recognized for its exceptional performance capabilities, including high web server throughput, reduced latency, and dynamic optimization of x86-64 machine code. Further, it’s linked to other technologies like LLVM, Parrot virtual machine, and Phalanger. The source code of HHVM is available on GitHub[2], and it’s licensed under PHP and Zend Licenses.
HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM) is an open-source virtual machine based on just-in-time (JIT) compilation that serves as an execution engine for the Hack programming language. By using the principle of JIT compilation, Hack code is first transformed into intermediate HipHop bytecode (HHBC), which is then dynamically translated into x86-64 machine code, optimized, and natively executed. This contrasts with PHP's usual interpreted execution, in which the Zend Engine transforms PHP source code into opcodes that serve as a form of bytecode, and executes the opcodes directly on the Zend Engine's virtual CPU.
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Developer(s) | Meta Platforms |
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Initial release | December 9, 2011 |
Stable release | |
Repository | |
Written in | PHP, C++, OCaml and Rust |
License | PHP License and Zend License |
Website | hhvm |
HHVM is developed by Meta, with the project's source code hosted on GitHub; it is licensed under the terms of the PHP License and Zend License.