RHE: A JVM Courseware

Java Virtual Machine (JVM) education has become essential in training embedded software engineers as well as virtual machine researchers and practitioners. However, due to the lack of suitable instructional tools, it is difficult for students to obtain any kind of hands-on experience and to attain any deep understanding of JVM design. To address this issue, the authors designed the RHE, or Reduced Harmony for Education, a lightweight instructional JVM. The RHE is extremely simple and yet contains all essential modules of a JVM. Furthermore, it comes with several test programs designed to familiarize users with the modules of JVM. In the past few years, the authors have successfully used the RHE to train new engineers on the JVM technology. The training experience shows that with the RHE, it takes less than 40 h for engineers with little or no prior knowledge of JVM design to become familiar with the essential JVM components.