3/19/10 — Minor edit.  Got a little ahead of myself; Microsoft did not announce they were supporting <canvas>.  However, they did say that all of Internet Explorer 9′s graphics, text, and rendering will be hardware accelerated.  Given the embraced HTML5 across DOM, CSS3, SVG, and XHTML, it will be fun to watch this space closely as the IE9 Preview gets updated in the weeks to come.

Today, Microsoft took the wraps off of the next version of Internet Explorer (IE9) and released the IE9 Platform Preview, which AMD really applauds because it will take advantage of our hardware.   There are some interesting characteristics of IE9 that will help propel web development forward and provide consumers and businesses alike with faster, richer, and more pleasing web experiences.

Specifically, IE9 will take advantage of the underlying hardware in different ways, both from a visual perspective as well as code execution perspective:

• The MSHTML rendering layer has been enhanced to use Direct2D and DirectWrite instead of GDI.  Direct2D enables GPU accelerated 2D graphics and text, and allows sub-pixel positioning.  In addition, the GPU is used for scaling (bitmaps are mapped to textures), which is ideal for zooming and moving images around the screen.  This GPU support translates directly into improved readability of pages, more precise placement of text and images, and smooth scrolling and zooming.
• JavaScript performance is greatly improved from older versions of Internet Explorer, and should be competitive if not better than competing browsers.  In the past, JavaScript in IE was interpreted and not compiled into native processor instructions.  The JavaScript engine now includes a JIT compiler which emits x86 instructions and compiles the code before it runs, resulting in a dramatic performance uplift.  Instruction generation can also be tailored to the underlying processor to take full advantage of the underlying platform.
• IE9 is more standards compliant than previous versions, with new support for HTML5 elements such as <video>, CSS3 support, and SVG support.  All graphic elements will be accelerated on the GPU and will enable hardware accelerated rendering contexts for application development, improving visual display, reducing CPU usage, and improving power usage.

What does this all mean?  Essentially, it now becomes possible to create richer, more immersive applications using HTML and JavaScript than it has been in the past.  AMD ATI Radeon 3000 series GPUs (and later) provided industry first support for DirectX 10.1, which is used by Direct2D, and it is this hardware acceleration of graphics and text that allows for faster screen response and higher quality text rendering.  More complex and functional JavaScript code will benefit from the increased performance of IE9’s JIT, which the developer can use to present a better experience for the end user.  In short, more fully utilizing the underlying hardware platform allows the development of rich graphical interactions (using HTML5 and JavaScript) that were not previously feasible.

Some may ask: will this lessen the value of Silverlight?  Absolutely not – Silverlight is still an ideal environment to write managed code with XAML for a great user experience, and provides a more cohesive development experience within Visual Studio 2010.  The benefit of a single development environment and platform is also useful when targeting Windows Phone 7, where Silverlight is supported.

AMD is working with multiple teams at Microsoft to ensure that technologies such as IE and Silverlight continue to move the PC platform forward.

With leading CPU and GPU technologies, AMD is well positioned to provide hardware platforms that will help users take advantage of all the web has to offer.  We are in a unique position where we are blending the power of the CPU and GPU together into what we call a Fusion APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit, which will integrate visual and traditional computing for the next wave of end-user and developer experiences.

Robin Maffeo

Microsoft Interface

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