12/01/09
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 promises faster web surfing
Microsoft's next browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), will offload image and text rendering chores to the PC's graphic processor, one way the company plans to increase the browser's overall performance, according to Microsoft, which introduced the web browser at its Product Developers Conference (PDC09). But Microsoft won't be alone. Rivals including Mozilla, which makes Firefox, and Norwegian developer Opera, are working on ways to use a computer's graphics processor unit (GPU) to accelerate their browsers. The new web browser is still in production and testing and has no set ship date or even a public development plan. While acknowledging that the company had a lot of catching up to do, however, Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's president of Windows and Windows Live, told attendees that early work on IE9 had already shown significant performance strides. In addition to use of a PC's graphics processor, the implementation of HTML5 and improved JavaScript performance will be the twin spurs behind development an the acceleration involves DirectX so fonts will be smoother, maps display faster and effects can be smoothly implemented, Sinofsky said.
[ Back to Blog » ]