Microsoft today launched the Platform preview of their latest browser Internet Explorer 9. Platform preview basically means that it is a browser without the user interface which you would normally associate a browser with. It is basically a developer version released for them to take a look at the latest features of this new IE9.
IE9 has a lot of big changes coming out with their new browser. New improvements include
- New Microsoft JavaScript engine codenamed "Chakra" has been specifically designed to make better use of dual-core systems by using the second core to compile the JavaScript code down to native code.
- New graphics subsystem and the browser also makes use of the PC's GPU in order to boost performance, much to the excitement of the guys at NVIDIA.
- More support for the emerging HTML5, CSS3 and SVG2 technologies.
HTML5 applications are a lot richer and demanding, in terms of graphics and speed than Ajax applications. So it’s logical they’ll work better on multi-core machines where the browser can take advantage of multicore performance, Microsoft officials argue. That’s why Microsoft’s new JavaScript engine is built to take advantage of two cores, with the second core compiling JavaScript down to native machine code to help speed up the browser. (Once the native code is available, there’s no need to use interpreted code on Core 1, meaning an app spends less time in JavaScript.)
Microsoft is planning to deliver a lot more preview builds of IE 9 before it hits beta. In fact, the team is committing to delivering an update every eight weeks, and to interact with developers via the Microsoft Connect feedback loop. Microsoft officials wouldn’t say when to expect the first IE 9 beta or to provide any kind of ship date target for the final release.
The product is available for download at
www.IETestDrive.com. Do check it out!
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