Ever Wondered what is Dalvik?

• DVM is built specifically for android, It is built to address the battery life, processing power & it is free.
• We are using DVM instead of Java Virtual Machine(JVM) because Java, Java tools are free but the JVM is not free, so the android developers from google have made their own virtual machine and made it as free.
• Every Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of the Dalvik virtual machine.
• The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format which is optimised for minimal memory footprint.
• The VM is register-based, and runs classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into the .dex format by the included “dx” tool.
• Dalvik is a discontinued.
• The successor of Dalvik is Android Runtime (ART).

Just Take a look and it is easy to understand:-

.java file — given to — java compiler — to generate — .class file.
all .class files — given to — dx tool — to generate single — dex file
dex file — given to — dvm — to generate — final machine code.
final machine code — given to — CPU — to Execute.

Originally published at Stuff I’ve been learning..