Let's summarize what happens behind the scenes.
When a Python executes a program, Python reads the .py into memory, and parses it in order to get a bytecode, then goes on to execute. For each module that is imported by the program, Python first checks to see whether there is a precompiled bytecode version, in a .pyo or .pyc, that has a timestamp which corresponds to its .py file. Python uses the bytecode version if any. Otherwise, it parses the module's .py file, saves it into a .pyc file, and uses the bytecode it just created.
Byte code files are also one way of shipping Python codes. Python will still run a program if all it can find are.pyc files, even if the original .py source files are not there.
Python Virtual Machine (PVM)
Once our program has been compiled into byte code, it is shipped off for execution to Python Virtual Machine (PVM). The PVM is not a separate program. It need not be installed by itself. Actually, the PVM is just a big loop that iterates through our byte code instruction, one by one, to carry out their operations. The PVM is the runtime engine of Python. It's always present as part of the Python system. It's the component that truly runs our scripts. Technically it's just the last step of what is called the Python interpreter.
参考资料
Yogesh Chaurse Python Developer
https://www.quora.com/Is-Python-compiled-or-interpreted-or-both
