"It wouldn't suprise me if modern CPUs actually added an additional step, where they first translate (compile?) the input stream into some internal instruction

"It wouldn't suprise me if modern CPUs actually added an additional step, where they first translate (compile?) the input stream into some internal instruction set, and then have microcode that acts as an interperator for that." Among Java processors, there was quite a mix of methods ranging from CISC to RISC to in-hardware to interpret-to-regular-CPU's: https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded/java-processors https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded/java-processors IBM's System/38 also did something with portable microcode that got converted to internal microcode: https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~levy/capabook/index.html https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~levy/capabook/index.html