Dalvik: How Google Routed Around Sun’s IP-based Licensing Restrictions on Java ME
How nice to be able to solve a political and business problem by writing a compiler. Instead of licensing Java ME for their Android cell phone platform, Google wrote their own virtual machine called Dalvik (via John Gruber). The Android SDK includes a tool called “dx” that translates Java .class files into Dalvik .dex files. So you can use your existing Java code and tools, but the phone doesn’t actually run the Java VM. And since Dalvik is a register machine, perhaps this will invigorate the old register vs. stack debate.
