VVM is based on a model of a simple hypothetical computer device called The Little Man Computer. This pencil-and-paper model was originally developed by Professor S. Madnick of MIT in 1965, and revised in 1979. In the Little Man paradigm, the computing process is imagined as being accomplished by a little man (circuitry) shuttling slips of paper (instructions, data) within a walled mailroom (central hardware). One hundred numbered mailboxes (ram) hold machine code and data that direct the little man in his computing duties. Calculations are performed on a simple pocket calculator (accumulator register, ALU). A hand counter (instruction pointer/program counter) maintains program sequence. VVM adopts the instruction set and the machine capabilities of the Little Man Computer model in its design.

The beauty of the Little Man model, and consequently of VVM which is based on the model, is that the most important aspects of the computing process are maintained, while the needlessly complex details are ignored. For example, in the Little Man model, both data and instructions are represented and stored as decimal integers rather than as binary strings. Also, the programming language for the hypothetical machine comprises only the most fundamental operations for computing activity.