It was a question of time until a C++ virtual machine would appear. Implementing a Java-style virtual machine for C++ is a trivial task. The problem is that such a virtual machine would suffer from the well-known ailments of Java: bloated and inherently slow code. At present, there are at least three independent projects that attempt to define a uniform binary interface for C++. One of these projects will enable you to link code that was compiled by different compilers into a single executable file. A more interesting project is targeted at the Internet. The “Internet C++ Virtual Machine” (ICVM) project defines a universal 32-bit virtual machine for C++ that will enable you to run C++ code virtually on every target machine, regardless of the underlying OS and hardware. ICVM promises both high performance and portability. You can read more about ICVM here: http://sr9.xoom.com/icvmcpp/