Android Runtime
Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of
the functionality available in the core libraries of the Java programming
language.
Every Android application runs in its own process, with its own instance of
the Dalvik virtual machine. Dalvik has been written so that a device can run
multiple VMs efficiently. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik
Executable (.dex) format which is optimized 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.
The Dalvik VM relies on the Linux kernel for underlying functionality such
as threading and low-level memory management.
