V8 is the JavaScript Engine used by Node.js and Chromium; it uses just-in-time compilation (JIT) to execute Javascript code, and code caching to lessen the overhead to initially parse and compile a script.

The ability to tap into V8 to produce/consume this cache was introduced in Node v5.7.0. This module attaches a require hook to use V8's code cache to speed up instantiation time.

Node.js is an event-based server-side JavaScript engine.