Press Release Summary: Although some other implementations of the Common Language Infrastructure run on non-Windows operating systems, Microsoft\'s implementation runs only on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Press Release Body: Programming languages on the .NET Framework compile into an intermediate language known as the Common Intermediate Language (CIL). Microsoft\'s implementation of the CLI is known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the virtual machine component of Microsoft\'s .NET initiative. It is Microsoft\'s implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) standard, which defines an execution environment for program code. Developers using the CLR write code in a language such as C# or VB.Net. At compile time, a .NET compiler converts such code into CIL code. At runtime, the CLR\'s just-in-time compiler converts the CIL code into code native to the operating system. Learn more of this with the austin .net developer. Alternatively, the CIL code can be compiled to native code in a separate step prior to runtime. This speeds up all later runs of the software as the CIL-to-native compilation is no longer necessary. The virtual machine aspect of the CLR allows programmers to ignore many details of the specific CPU that will execute the program. The CLR also provides other important services, including the following: Memory Management, Thread Management, Exception Handling, Garbage Collection, and Security. Memory management is the act of managing computer memory. In its simpler forms, this involves providing ways to allocate portions of memory to programs at their request, and freeing it for reuse when no longer needed. The management of main memory is critical to the computer system. Learn about the .NET Framework memory management with the austin .net developer. A thread in computer science is short for a thread of execution. Threads are a way for a program to fork itself into two or more simultaneously running tasks. Threads and processes differ from one operating system to another but, in general, a thread is contained inside a process and different threads in the same process share some resources while different processes do not. Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of some condition that changes the normal flow of execution. For signaling conditions that are part of the normal flow of execution see the concepts of signal and event handler. In computer science, garbage collection (GC) is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector, or just collector, attempts to reclaim garbage, or memory used by objects that will never be accessed or mutated again by the application. Learn more about garbage collection in .NET Framework with the austin .net developer. Computer security is a branch of technology known as information security as applied to computers. The objective of computer security varies and can include protection of information from theft or corruption, or the preservation of availability, as defined in the security policy. For more information about the CLR or about the .NET Framework, then visit the austin .net developer for more details.