Explore Nova: JavaScript and Wasm engine Nova written in Rust
Dec 06, 2024 am 11:47 AM
Explore Nova: the next generation JavaScript and WebAssembly engine
Are you curious about how JavaScript (JS) and WebAssembly (Wasm) work? Today we'll explore an open source project called Nova, a JavaScript and WebAssembly engine written in Rust. Although Nova is still under development and not suitable for practical use, its innovative design and unique approach have attracted the attention of many technology enthusiasts.
What is Nova?
Nova is a JavaScript and WebAssembly engine used in Rust projects as a runtime for JavaScript code. It is written in the Rust language and aims to provide an efficient, safe and easy-to-integrate JavaScript execution environment. Nova's design is heavily inspired by Kiesel and SerenityOS's LibJS, especially in terms of execution model and data organization.
Nova’s core design philosophy
Nova’s design concept is Data-Oriented Design. The core of this design approach is to improve performance by optimizing data layout, rather than focusing on the execution path of the code. Here are a few key features of Nova:
Double-defined types: In Nova's design, many ECMAScript types and record types are defined twice: once as a heap data definition, and again as an index definition. This approach allows Nova to strike a balance between performance and memory management.
Heap structure: Nova adopts a data-oriented heap structure, which means that data is organized into a form more suitable for CPU cache, thereby improving efficiency when data is accessed frequently.
Execution Model: Nova’s execution model is inspired by Kiesel and LibJS, trying to find the best balance between performance and memory usage.
Nova application scenarios
Although Nova is still under development, its design and concept have laid the foundation for future application scenarios:
Web Developer Tools: Nova can be integrated into web development tools for testing and running JavaScript code, providing a more efficient operating environment.
Embedded Systems: Due to the security and performance of the Rust language, Nova can be used in JavaScript environments in embedded systems that require high performance and security.
Server-side application: As a lightweight JavaScript runtime, Nova can be used in server-side applications to handle JavaScript-related tasks.
How to use Nova?
Although Nova is still under development, we can foresee that its usage may include the following steps:
- Integrate Nova: Integrate Nova into your project as a Rust library.
use nova_engine::NovaEngine; let mut engine = NovaEngine::new();
- Load JavaScript code:
engine.load_script("let x = 5; console.log(x);");
- Execute JavaScript code:
engine.run();
- Interacting with Wasm: If your project needs to use WebAssembly, you can load the Wasm module and interact with it.
let wasm_module = engine.load_wasm_module("my_module.wasm");
engine.execute_wasm_function(wasm_module, "my_function");
Learn more about Nova’s architecture
Nova’s architecture follows the spirit of the ECMAScript specification, but uses a data-oriented design to implement it. Here are some highlights of the Nova architecture:
Record Types: Nova’s record types remain consistent with those in the ECMAScript specification, but with added index definitions to optimize performance.
Memory Management: By using non-zero indexing (NonZeroU32) and the u32 wrapper, Nova manages memory efficiently, avoiding the complexity of borrow checking.
Heap structure: Nova's heap structure is designed to be data-oriented, which means that data is arranged in a form more suitable for CPU cache, thus improving performance.
Nova’s future development
The Nova project is under active development, and community participation is the key to its success. The following are the directions that Nova may focus on in the future:
Performance Optimization: Continue to optimize data structures and algorithms to achieve higher execution efficiency.
WebAssembly support: Enhanced support for WebAssembly, making Nova a full-featured JavaScript and Wasm engine.
Stability and security: Ensure the stability and security of Nova in various environments.
Comparison between Nova and similar projects
In the field of JavaScript engines, Nova is not alone. Here are some comparisons with other similar projects:
V8 (developed by Google for Chrome browser): V8 is a highly mature and optimized engine that supports advanced features such as JIT compilation and garbage collection. In contrast, Nova places more emphasis on data-oriented design and performance optimization.
SpiderMonkey (developed by Mozilla for Firefox browser): SpiderMonkey also supports JIT compilation, but its design and implementation are significantly different from Nova, which focuses more on the optimization of data structures .
JavaScriptCore (developed by Apple for Safari browser): JavaScriptCore also supports JIT compilation and garbage collection, but Nova seeks performance breakthroughs through data-oriented design.
Although Nova is still under development, its design concept and implementation method provide a new perspective for the development of JavaScript and WebAssembly engines. Through data-oriented design, Nova is committed to providing an efficient, secure and easy-to-integrate JavaScript runtime environment. If you are interested in participating in this project or learning more about JavaScript engine development, please join Nova's Discord community.
Through today’s introduction, we not only learned about Nova, the emerging JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, but also discussed its design philosophy and potential application scenarios. Whether you are a developer, a technology enthusiast, or just a reader interested in technology, Nova provides us with a new perspective to understand and think about the future of the JavaScript engine.
The above is the detailed content of Explore Nova: JavaScript and Wasm engine Nova written in Rust. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!
Hot AI Tools
Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free
Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos
AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.
Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover
Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!
Hot Article
Hot Tools
Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor
SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use
Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment
Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools
SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)
How does garbage collection work in JavaScript?
Jul 04, 2025 am 12:42 AM
JavaScript's garbage collection mechanism automatically manages memory through a tag-clearing algorithm to reduce the risk of memory leakage. The engine traverses and marks the active object from the root object, and unmarked is treated as garbage and cleared. For example, when the object is no longer referenced (such as setting the variable to null), it will be released in the next round of recycling. Common causes of memory leaks include: ① Uncleared timers or event listeners; ② References to external variables in closures; ③ Global variables continue to hold a large amount of data. The V8 engine optimizes recycling efficiency through strategies such as generational recycling, incremental marking, parallel/concurrent recycling, and reduces the main thread blocking time. During development, unnecessary global references should be avoided and object associations should be promptly decorated to improve performance and stability.
How to make an HTTP request in Node.js?
Jul 13, 2025 am 02:18 AM
There are three common ways to initiate HTTP requests in Node.js: use built-in modules, axios, and node-fetch. 1. Use the built-in http/https module without dependencies, which is suitable for basic scenarios, but requires manual processing of data stitching and error monitoring, such as using https.get() to obtain data or send POST requests through .write(); 2.axios is a third-party library based on Promise. It has concise syntax and powerful functions, supports async/await, automatic JSON conversion, interceptor, etc. It is recommended to simplify asynchronous request operations; 3.node-fetch provides a style similar to browser fetch, based on Promise and simple syntax
JavaScript Data Types: Primitive vs Reference
Jul 13, 2025 am 02:43 AM
JavaScript data types are divided into primitive types and reference types. Primitive types include string, number, boolean, null, undefined, and symbol. The values are immutable and copies are copied when assigning values, so they do not affect each other; reference types such as objects, arrays and functions store memory addresses, and variables pointing to the same object will affect each other. Typeof and instanceof can be used to determine types, but pay attention to the historical issues of typeofnull. Understanding these two types of differences can help write more stable and reliable code.
React vs Angular vs Vue: which js framework is best?
Jul 05, 2025 am 02:24 AM
Which JavaScript framework is the best choice? The answer is to choose the most suitable one according to your needs. 1.React is flexible and free, suitable for medium and large projects that require high customization and team architecture capabilities; 2. Angular provides complete solutions, suitable for enterprise-level applications and long-term maintenance; 3. Vue is easy to use, suitable for small and medium-sized projects or rapid development. In addition, whether there is an existing technology stack, team size, project life cycle and whether SSR is needed are also important factors in choosing a framework. In short, there is no absolutely the best framework, the best choice is the one that suits your needs.
JavaScript time object, someone builds an eactexe, faster website on Google Chrome, etc.
Jul 08, 2025 pm 02:27 PM
Hello, JavaScript developers! Welcome to this week's JavaScript news! This week we will focus on: Oracle's trademark dispute with Deno, new JavaScript time objects are supported by browsers, Google Chrome updates, and some powerful developer tools. Let's get started! Oracle's trademark dispute with Deno Oracle's attempt to register a "JavaScript" trademark has caused controversy. Ryan Dahl, the creator of Node.js and Deno, has filed a petition to cancel the trademark, and he believes that JavaScript is an open standard and should not be used by Oracle
Understanding Immediately Invoked Function Expressions (IIFE) in JavaScript
Jul 04, 2025 am 02:42 AM
IIFE (ImmediatelyInvokedFunctionExpression) is a function expression executed immediately after definition, used to isolate variables and avoid contaminating global scope. It is called by wrapping the function in parentheses to make it an expression and a pair of brackets immediately followed by it, such as (function(){/code/})();. Its core uses include: 1. Avoid variable conflicts and prevent duplication of naming between multiple scripts; 2. Create a private scope to make the internal variables invisible; 3. Modular code to facilitate initialization without exposing too many variables. Common writing methods include versions passed with parameters and versions of ES6 arrow function, but note that expressions and ties must be used.
Handling Promises: Chaining, Error Handling, and Promise Combinators in JavaScript
Jul 08, 2025 am 02:40 AM
Promise is the core mechanism for handling asynchronous operations in JavaScript. Understanding chain calls, error handling and combiners is the key to mastering their applications. 1. The chain call returns a new Promise through .then() to realize asynchronous process concatenation. Each .then() receives the previous result and can return a value or a Promise; 2. Error handling should use .catch() to catch exceptions to avoid silent failures, and can return the default value in catch to continue the process; 3. Combinators such as Promise.all() (successfully successful only after all success), Promise.race() (the first completion is returned) and Promise.allSettled() (waiting for all completions)
What is the cache API and how is it used with Service Workers?
Jul 08, 2025 am 02:43 AM
CacheAPI is a tool provided by the browser to cache network requests, which is often used in conjunction with ServiceWorker to improve website performance and offline experience. 1. It allows developers to manually store resources such as scripts, style sheets, pictures, etc.; 2. It can match cache responses according to requests; 3. It supports deleting specific caches or clearing the entire cache; 4. It can implement cache priority or network priority strategies through ServiceWorker listening to fetch events; 5. It is often used for offline support, speed up repeated access speed, preloading key resources and background update content; 6. When using it, you need to pay attention to cache version control, storage restrictions and the difference from HTTP caching mechanism.
