is a sandboxing technology developed by Google that allows the safe execution of native C and C++ code within a web browser. Originally introduced in 2008, it was designed to bridge the performance gap between traditional web applications and desktop software by running compiled binaries at near-native speeds.
While it was a groundbreaking experiment in bringing high-performance computing to the web, NaCl has since been largely superseded by , a more portable and universally supported standard. The Core Technology: How NaCl Works
Despite its technical merits, NaCl faced several significant hurdles that eventually led to its sunset:
NaCl operates by creating a secure "sandbox" that isolates untrusted native code from the user's underlying operating system. It uses two primary methods to ensure security: