What is V8
Chrome and NodeJS both employ Google's open source V8 JavaScript Engine, which is written in C++. It supports Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.12 or later, and Linux systems with x64, IA-32, ARM, or MIPS processors. It also enables ECMAScript and Web Assembly. While NodeJS is built on top of v8, a runtime environment that allows JavaScript the ability to function at the server-side, v8 is a browser engine.
A JavaScript engine built on C++ called V8 was created by Google. It was first created in 2008 for Chromium-based browsers like Brave and Google Chrome, but Node.js was later developed using it. In actuality, the V8 engine powers popular JSON-based No-SQL databases like Couchbase and MongoDB. Additionally, V8 is the engine of Demo, the newest server-side runtime environment, and Electron, a well-known desktop application framework.
JS code is converted into machine code via the V8 Engine.
Utilizing V8 in NodeJS
The V8-specific APIs that are incorporated into the Node.js binary are exposed by the node:v8 module. You can get to it by using:
const v8 = require('node:v8');
We import the v8 module into our js file in order to utilise it.
What connection exists between Node and V8?
Node.js is referred to as a runtime environment because it comes with everything required to run a JavaScript programme. This V8 engine is the brains behind Node.js. The Java Runtime environment, which is powered by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), is compared in the diagram. The Node.js runtime environment also includes numerous Node APIs in addition to the V8 engine to power the Node.js environment. Additionally, we can add more npm packages to our node code to increase its capabilities.
It's important to realise that V8 is essentially a standalone C++ library that Node or Chromium use to execute JavaScript code. If you have your own C++ programme, you can embed V8 in it to run a JavaScript application because V8 exposes an API that other code can utilise. That is how Chrome and Node handle it.
Various JavaScript V8 engine techniques
v8.cachedDataVersionTag()
v8.getHeapCodeStatistics()
v8.getHeapSnapshot()
v8.getHeapSpaceStatistics()
v8.getHeapStatistics()
v8.setFlagsFromString(flags)
v8.stopCoverage()
v8.takeCoverage()
v8.writeHeapSnapshot([filename])
v8.setHeapSnapshotNearHeapLimit(limit)
Conclusion
JavaScript code is first processed and transformed into an AST. It is then interpreted, second. The profile then keeps tabs on used coding and flags. The computer is then given the optimised code that the compiler produces after the JavaScript engine has combined the bytecode that the interpreter has produced with it. JIT Compiler is the name of this tool.