K Virtual Machine

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What Does K Virtual Machine 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.

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Techopedia Explains K Virtual Machine

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 It has now been replaced by the connected limited device configuration HotSpot VM.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.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.