Node.js is a server-side, open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that is designed to build scalable network applications. It is built on Chromes V8 JavaScript engine and uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O architecture, which makes it efficient and suitable for real-time applications. Node.js is composed of Google’s V8 JavaScript engine, the libUV platform abstraction layer, and a core library that is written in JavaScript.
Node.js is used for building server-side applications and is particularly useful for building I/O intensive applications like video streaming sites and online chatting applications. It is also easily employed as a server-side proxy, where it can handle a large amount of simultaneous connections in a non-blocking manner. Node.js is free, runs on various platforms, and uses JavaScript on the server.
Node.js is designed to be scalable and efficient. It uses an asynchronous programming model, which means that almost no function in Node.js directly performs I/O, so the process never blocks except when the I/O is performed using synchronous methods of Node.js standard library. This is in contrast to todays more common concurrency model, in which OS threads are employed. Thread-based networking is relatively inefficient and very difficult to use.
In summary, Node.js is a powerful tool for building scalable network applications and server-side applications. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O architecture, which makes it efficient and suitable for real-time applications. It is free, runs on various platforms, and uses JavaScript on the server.
