Here are the links to the original proposal for the project.

• Apache Harmony Proposal
• Initial FAQ accompanying the proposal
  

Proposal translations:

• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_Spanish - Propuesta Inicial del proyecto Apache Harmony en castellano
• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_Portuguese - Proposta Inicial do projeto Apache Harmony em português
• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_Italian - Proposta iniziale del progetto Apache Harmony in italiano
• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_Turkish - Teklifin Türkçe Versiyonu
• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_Czech - Návrh v češtině
• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_German - Deutsche Übersetzung des Antrags
• Apache_Harmony_Proposal_Chinese - Apache Harmony Proposal in Chinese
  

Initial FAQ translations:

• Initial_FAQ_Spanish - Incomplete (FAQ in spanish - FAQ en castellano)
• Initial_FAQ_Portuguese - Incomplete (FAQ in portuguese - FAQ em português)
• Initial_FAQ_Italian - (FAQ in italian - FAQ in italiano)
  

Motivations

• Focus on modular, interchangeable components
  • exploit existing compilers, memory managers etc
  • promote configurability (different components for different contexts)
  • allow diversity in development approaches
  • encourage large-scale contributions (here's a compiler)
    

• Bootstrap the project rapidly
  • capture momentum
  • seed the project with an existing VM-core (or cores)
    
• Design a clean core (or cores) from scratch
  • do this concurrently with work on components in existing core/s
  • the core should be lightweight
  • multiple cores may make sense
    • the needs of different contexts may require this
    • competing approaches may be healthy