Beam VM
Beam VM is the virtual machine that executes bytecode for the Erlang programming language and its ecosystem, including Elixir and LFE. It provides a highly concurrent, fault-tolerant runtime environment with built-in support for lightweight processes, message passing, and hot code swapping. The VM is designed for building scalable, distributed systems that require high availability and low latency.
Developers should learn Beam VM when building real-time applications, telecommunications systems, or distributed services where concurrency and fault tolerance are critical, such as in chat apps, IoT platforms, or financial trading systems. It is essential for working with Erlang, Elixir, or LFE, as it underpins their ability to handle millions of concurrent connections with minimal resource usage and automatic error recovery.