Arundathi

• Jul 1st, 2005

 

The Hotspot VM is a collection of techniques, the most significant of which is called "adaptive optimization. 
The original JVMs interpreted bytecodes one at a time. Second-generation JVMs added a JIT compiler, which compiles each method to native code upon first execution, then executes the native code. Thereafter, whenever the method is called, the native code is executed. The adaptive optimization technique used by Hotspot is a hybrid approach, one that combines bytecode interpretation and run-time compilation to native code.  
Hotspot, unlike a regular JIT compiling VM, doesn't do "premature optimization"