PC Register and Native Method Stack

JVM Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - Version 4.23, by Dr. Herong Yang

JVM Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟PC Register and Native Method Stack

This section describes PC Registers and Native Method Stacks, which are reserved one per thread. Normal Java applications do not have any significant impact on PC Registers and Native Method Stacks.

We have quickly tested 4 types of runtime data areas, Method Area, Heap, Direct Memory, JVM Stack. The rest 2 types of runtime data areas, PC Registers and Native Method Stacks, are not easy to play with, because:

1. A PC (Program Counter) Register contains the address of the instruction currently being executed in its associated thread. The PC Register is very small data area and has a fixed size. Java applications do not have any impact on its content and size.

2. A Native Method Stack stores similar data elements as a JVM Stack and it is used to help executing native (non-Java) methods. To play with a Native Method Stack, we need to integrate some native program codes into Java applications.

Last update: 2014.

Table of Contents

About This Book

Downloading and Installing JDK 1.8.0 on Windows

Downloading and Installing JDK 1.7.0 on Windows

java.lang.Runtime Class - The JVM Instance

java.lang.System Class - The Operating System

ClassLoader Class - Class Loaders

Class Class - Class Reflections

Sun's JVM - Java HotSpot VM

JRockit JVM 28.2.7 by Oracle Corporation

►JVM Runtime Data Areas