SECD machine

The SECD machine is a highly influential virtual machine intended as a target for [functional programming language]? compilers. The letters stand for Stack Environment Code Dump and describe the internal registers of the machine. These registers point to linked lists in memory.

The machine was the first to be specifically designed to evaluate lambda calculus expressions. It was originally described by [Peter J. Landin]? as part of his [ISWIM programming language]? definition in 1963. However it is best known in connection with [Peter Henderson]?'s Lispkit Lisp compiler which has been distributed since 1980. Since then it has been used as the target for several other experimental compilers.

In 1989 researchers at the University of Calgary worked on a hardware implementation of the machine.