Have you ever wondered what really goes on when your computer takes a higher-level language, like Javascript or C, and turns it into something it can read? Quine8 (Q8) is a simple virtual machine that takes the most basic building block a computer can operate on, bytecode and runs it at a fraction of the speed of a real CPU, allowing you to watch it run each step of the way.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Wednesday January 11 2017, @11:37AM
Somebody with far too time on their hand demoed Linux booting on a Javascript emulated CPU.
Yep, Fabrice Bellard: http://bellard.org/jslinux/ [bellard.org]
He was the guy who wrote Qemu originally, along with ffmpeg. Wish I had the free time he does to do these kind of cool OSS projects.