• Mihies@programming.dev
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    2 days ago

    To me it sounds like what Java or .NET JIT does. I doubt it falls strictly into emulation 🤷‍♂️

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      In Java or .NET, the JIT is still going from a higher level abstraction to a lower one. You JIT from CIL (common intermediate language) or Java Bytecode down to native machine code.

      When you convert from a high level language to a low level language, we call it compiling.

      Here, you are translating the native machine code of one architecture to the native machine code of another (x86-64 to RISC-V).

      When you run code designed for one platform on another platform, we call it emulation.

      JIT means Just-in-Time which just means it happens when you “execute” the code instead of Ahead-of-Time.

      In .NET, you have a JIT compiler. Here, you have a JIT emulator.

      A JIT is faster than an interpreter. Modern web browsers JIT JavaScript to make it faster.