.NET Programming: A Practical Guide Using C#

Microsoft Intermediate Language

The CLI also specifies an environment for executing the code targeting the CLI. The environment is called the Virtual Execution System (VES). Among other things, the VES defines a hypothetical machine with an associated machine model and instructions. The machine instructions are defined in a language called Common Intermediate Language (CIL). A detailed description of the CIL instruction set can be found in the ECMA specifications.

As you may have guessed, Microsoft's implementation of CIL is called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL).

Consider the following C# code to multiply two numbers:

public static int Multiply(int i, int j) {
  int k = i * j;
  return k;
}

When this code is compiled, the compiler creates ...