Dalvik is the name of Android’s virtual machine where Dalvik VM is an interpreter-only virtual machine that executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format. The virtual machine is register-based, run classes compiled by Java language compiler that have been altered into its native format using the included ‘dx’ tool. The Dalvik core class library is envisioned to provide a familiar development base for those used to programming with Java Standard Edition, but is geared explicitly for the needs of a small mobile device.
