{{Short description, Virtual machine
Virtual Processor (VP) was a
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized har ...
from
Tao Group
Tao Group was a software company with headquarters in Reading, Berkshire, UK. It developed the Intent software platform, which enabled content portability by delivering services in a platform-independent format called Virtual Processor (VP). ...
.
History
The first version, VP1, was the basis of its parallel processing multimedia OS and platform, TAOS. VP1 supported a
RISC
In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set compu ...
-like instruction set with 16 32-bit registers, and had data types of 32- and 64-bit integers and 32- and 64-bit
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...
floating point numbers in registers, and also supported 8- and 16-bit integers in memory.
The second version, VP2, was released in 1998 as the basis of a new version of the portable multimedia platform, first known as Elate and then as intent. VP2 supported the same data types and data processing operations as VP1, but had additional features for better support of high level languages such as demarcation of
subroutines
In computer programming, a function or subroutine is a sequence of program instructions that performs a specific task, packaged as a unit. This unit can then be used in programs wherever that particular task should be performed.
Functions may ...
, by-value parameters, and a very large theoretical maximum number of registers local to the subroutine for use as local variables.
The structure of VPCode, the Virtual Processor's
machine code
In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a ver ...
, was intended to be able to represent the constructs required when compiling languages such as C, C++ and
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
, and to allow efficient translation into the machine code of any real 32- or 64-bit
CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...