The current implementation looks like a compiler to a stack-based bytecode with a straightforward textbook interpreter. For example, here is the interpretation

The current implementation looks like a compiler to a stack-based bytecode with a straightforward textbook interpreter. For example, here is the interpretation of the Add bytecode: https://github.com/egranata/aria/blob/master/vm-lib/src/vm.rs#L500-L521 https://github.com/egranata/aria/blob/master/vm-lib/src/vm.r... So to a very rough first approximation, performance characteristics should be in CPython's ballpark.