TLDR Dev · ARTICLES & TUTORIALS

WRITE YOUR OWN VIRTUAL MACHINE

jmeiners.com35 min read

Summary from the TLDR Dev newsletter

This literate tutorial builds an LC-3 virtual machine in about 250 lines of C, covering registers, memory, opcodes, traps, loading programs, and platform-specific input. It uses the compact 16-opcode architecture to make CPU execution and low-level language mechanics approachable.