K Virtual Machine (KVM)

What Does K Virtual Machine (KVM) Mean?

K virtual machine (KVM), in a Java context, is a deprecated Java virtual machine (VM) from Sun Microsystems, which is now owned by Oracle Corp. It is designed for resource-limited devices such as cell phones, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants and point-of-sale terminals. The "K" in KVM stands for kilobyte, signifying the small memory space of only a few hundred kilobytes required by the virtual machine.

Techopedia Explains K Virtual Machine (KVM)

For a long time, the KVM was employed by developers creating mobile applications using the Java 2 Platform Micro Edition. This low-footprint virtual machine was targeted at devices with 16- to 32-bit processors coupled with a total memory footprint of about 256 KB. It has now been replaced by the connected limited device configuration HotSpot VM.

The KVM specification focused on the following characteristics:

• Optimized for limited resources
• Portable to different platforms
• Modular
• Extensible

Its platform portability allowed it to run on a wide range of devices.