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| -rw-r--r-- | vm.md | 40 |
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@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +# GOLEM's VM + +GOLEM should compile to *something*, and bytecode seems to be the most +appropriate for various reasons, including portability and longevity. + +This VM (and GOLEM in general) won't be optimisation beasts, but they will be +functionnal and if a need to make a large GOLEM program faster comes up in the +future it will be certainly doable by writing a custom compiler. Consider this +to be a reference implementation. + +## gyte size + +GOLEM bytes will be called gytes to avoid any confusion. Bytes in this document +will refer to 8 bits. + +Gyte size could be program specific or fixed. + +## header + +1 byte will contain gyte size. + +1 gyte will contain static data size. + +Static data will be stored in the header and will be loaded at the start of the +VM memory. + +## memory + +GOLEM needs two memory regions: +* the stack for small volatile data +* the heap for allocated, large or long lasting data + +Memory sizes should be specified to the VM. + +## VM stacks + +GOLEM will have two stacks (to not counfound with memory stack): +* the instruction stack to be used by instructions and immediate operations +* the return stack used to store the program counter on function call and +restore it on return |