The Evolution of the BEAM Virtual Machine and Mastering Concurrency

The keynote by Erik Stenman at Code BEAM America 2024 discussed the 30-year evolution of the BEAM virtual machine, initially influenced by Erlang's creation and implementation in Prolog. The talk traced the progression from Prolog to JAM (Joe's Abstract Machine) and the subsequent development of the BEAM. Technical experiences were shared from Klarna to illustrate how BEAM's architecture underpins efficient and reliable concurrent programming. Stenman touched upon the core features of BEAM, such as process isolation, its scheduler, signal communication between processes, and automatic memory management, crediting the virtual machine's ability to handle tasks concurrently in a robust and maintainable manner. The presentation also delved into the challenges and successes of hot code upgrades at Klarna and the optimizations contributed to the BEAM community. Stenman concluded by discussing design principles for concurrent systems on the BEAM, emphasizing task-oriented processing and the separation of code from its executing processes. Despite considering BEAM's weaknesses, he advocated for its continued relevance and potential for evolution, even proposing a framework, 'Aba', to build upon its strong foundations for concurrent system design.