The Ethereum Virtual Machine, EVM, is an engine for the execution of millions of projects on the blockchain. The main aim of the EVM is for the deployment of smart contracts and their execution.
Virtual Machines generally perform faster and larger tasks than the underlying system. Virtual machines make it possible for one to share the resources of network participants. The EVM code is completely isolated from the network of the host computer. Most smart contracts are written in solidity and other programming languages.
Smart contracts written on solidity cannot be executed directly by the EVM but needs to be compiled into opcodes which the EVM uses to perform tasks. The EVM has now been implemented in several other languages like JavaScript, C++, Python, etc.