While the implementation sits several layers up the stack from the actual hardware, perl is a VM implementing a specialized processor optimized for running Perl code. I vaguely recall a quip somewhere in the XS documentation along the lines of "Real Programmers can write assembly in any language" referring to the macros used in XS code.

It is hilariously far into the CISC category, but there is a CPU architecture in there. Think of perl itself as microcode...