Common Language Runtime(CLR) Architecture(.Net)

CLR ARCHITECTURE

CLR stands for COMMON LANGUAGE RUNTIME. '

It is a software comes with MSCOREE.DLL . [ MSCOREE – MicroSoft CORE Eexcution].

It resides in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32.

The CLR is a Platform Dependent, because it produces the code that the operating system understands. . i.e., O/S Native Code.

O/S should maintain an application for calling CLR. This application is called as “RUNTIME HOST”.

The Runtime Host for Desktop application will be an API function called “CORBIND TO RUNTIME”.

The Runtime Host for Web application will be “ASP.NET WORKER PROCESS”.

The .NET Assembly will maintain CLR HEADER which will contain the Version of Runtime Engine to be loaded.
And CLR is a Runtime Engine that provides various services :


The services include :

ASSEMBLY RESOLVER:- It will read Manifest of the application and will locate files required for the application.This will forward request to ASSEMBLY LOADER.

ASSEMBLY LOADER :- It will LOAD all files required for the application.

TYPE CHECKER :- This will verify the TYPES used within the application with CLS standards. This will provide Type Safety.

DEBUG MANAGER :- When the application is terminated with runtime error, DEBUG MANAGER service will activate Debugger utility for line by line execution. This will allow the Developer to make the changes without stopping the execution.

EXCEPTION MANAGER :- This will verify Exception Class Object with Catch Blocks. If it is not Handled ,it will terminate the application.

COM MARSHALLER :- This will provide Interoperability with COM. i.e.,
Communication with COM RUNTIME.

THREAD SUPPORT :- This will share Processor time for more than one execution path within a single application process.
This will provide MultiThreading support.

GARBAGE COLLECTOR :- It will destroy unused objects. This will provide Automatic MEMORY MANAGEMENT under .NET Framework.

IL TO NATIVE COMPILER :- This is called as JIT(Just In Time) Comiler.

This will convert IL into O/S understandable code.

Finally O/S executes the code.

CLR is the core component of .NET FRAMEWORK.