GraalVM

GraalVM is a Java Development Kit (JDK) written in Java. The open-source distribution of GraalVM is based on OpenJDK, and the enterprise distribution is based on Oracle JDK. As well as just-in-time (JIT) compilation, GraalVM can compile a Java application ahead of time. This allows for faster initialization, greater runtime performance, and decreased resource consumption, but the resulting executable can only run on the platform it was compiled for. It provides additional programming languages and execution modes. The first production-ready release, GraalVM 19.0, was distributed in May 2019. The most recent release is GraalVM for JDK 21, made available in September 2023.

Major differentiators of GraalVM compared to the base JDK include:

• Graal Compiler, a just-in-time (JIT) compiler.
• GraalVM Native Image is a technology to compile Java applications ahead of time.
• Truffle Language Implementation Framework and GraalVM SDK, a Java-based framework and a collection of APIs for developing high-performance language runtimes.
• GraalVM Polyglot API, an API to embed guest language code in a Java-based host application.
• JavaScript Runtime, an ECMAScript 2023-compliant JavaScript runtime, as well as Node.js.
• LLVM Runtime is a runtime to execute languages that can be transformed into LLVM bitcode.