The Solana Virtual Machine—the execution environment that runs on-chain programs. SVM loads SBF bytecode, provides syscalls for account access and cryptographic operations, enforces compute budgets, and manages memory. The SVM is being modularized (via the SVM API) to enable use in rollups and other environments outside the main Solana validator.
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The Solana Virtual Machine—the execution environment that runs on-chain programs. SVM loads SBF bytecode, provides syscalls for account access and cryptographic operations, enforces compute budgets, and manages memory. The SVM is being modularized (via the SVM API) to enable use in rollups and other environments outside the main Solana validator.
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Think of it as part of the chain machinery that keeps ordering, execution, or consensus moving.
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Consensus, leader rotation, slots, epochs, and the runtime.
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Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) (svm) Category: Core Protocol Definition: The Solana Virtual Machine—the execution environment that runs on-chain programs. SVM loads SBF bytecode, provides syscalls for account access and cryptographic operations, enforces compute budgets, and manages memory. The SVM is being modularized (via the SVM API) to enable use in rollups and other environments outside the main Solana validator. Aliases: SVM Related: Sealevel, BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter), SBF (Solana Bytecode Format)
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Solana's parallel transaction execution engine. Sealevel can process thousands of transactions simultaneously by analyzing each transaction's declared account inputs—transactions that don't touch the same writable accounts run in parallel across available CPU cores. This account-level parallelism is what enables Solana's high throughput.
Berkeley Packet Filter—the original bytecode format used for Solana programs, inherited from Linux's eBPF. Programs written in Rust or C are compiled to BPF bytecode and executed in a sandboxed VM. BPF has been superseded by SBF on Solana but the tooling names (BPF Loader, cargo build-bpf) persist for historical reasons.
Solana Bytecode Format—Solana's customized evolution of BPF. SBF adds Solana-specific syscalls, modifies calling conventions, disables certain eBPF instructions, and adds features like position-independent code. Programs are compiled with `cargo build-sbf` and deployed as SBF ELF binaries. SBF replaced BPF as the canonical bytecode format.
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The first chain extension (appchain) on Solana, purpose-built for gaming applications using the HyperGrid framework. Sonic enables sovereign game economies that process millions of requests per second while settling back to Solana L1, reducing transaction costs by up to 100x compared to regular Solana transactions while maintaining native composability.
A formal specification document describing proposed and accepted changes to the Solana protocol, analogous to Ethereum's EIPs. SIMDs are categorized as Standard (Core, Networking, Interface) or Meta, and require supermajority validator stake-weighted voting (66.67%) to pass. Notable SIMDs include SIMD-33 (Timely Vote Credits), SIMD-123 (Block Revenue Sharing), SIMD-228 (Market-Based Emissions), and SIMD-326 (Alpenglow).
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Solana's parallel transaction execution engine. Sealevel can process thousands of transactions simultaneously by analyzing each transaction's declared account inputs—transactions that don't touch the same writable accounts run in parallel across available CPU cores. This account-level parallelism is what enables Solana's high throughput.
Berkeley Packet Filter—the original bytecode format used for Solana programs, inherited from Linux's eBPF. Programs written in Rust or C are compiled to BPF bytecode and executed in a sandboxed VM. BPF has been superseded by SBF on Solana but the tooling names (BPF Loader, cargo build-bpf) persist for historical reasons.
Solana Bytecode Format—Solana's customized evolution of BPF. SBF adds Solana-specific syscalls, modifies calling conventions, disables certain eBPF instructions, and adds features like position-independent code. Programs are compiled with `cargo build-sbf` and deployed as SBF ELF binaries. SBF replaced BPF as the canonical bytecode format.
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A clock mechanism that cryptographically proves the passage of time between events. PoH uses a sequential SHA-256 hash chain where each output becomes the next input, creating a verifiable ordering of events without requiring consensus. The leader produces ~400,000 hashes per slot (~400ms), and any validator can verify the sequence in parallel, enabling Solana's high throughput by removing the need for validators to agree on time.
Solana's custom BFT consensus algorithm built on top of Proof of History. Tower BFT uses PoH as a clock to reduce communication overhead in traditional PBFT from O(n²) to O(n). Validators vote on forks with exponentially increasing lockout periods—each consecutive vote doubles the lockout, making rollbacks progressively more expensive. A fork is finalized when it reaches supermajority (66.7%+ of stake).
A time window during which a designated leader validator can produce a block. Each slot lasts approximately 400 milliseconds. Slots are numbered sequentially from genesis and grouped into epochs of 432,000 slots (~2-3 days). Not every slot produces a block—a skipped slot means the leader was offline or too slow.
A set of entries produced by a leader during a single slot. A block contains transactions bundled into entries, each with a PoH hash proving ordering. Blocks are broken into shreds for network propagation via Turbine. Maximum block size is limited by compute units (48M CU cap per block) rather than byte size.