This week in San Francisco, Microsoft released the Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 3.  IE9 is revolutionary in that it will use the graphics processor to assist in the number # 1 activity of all computer users – surfing the web.  To understand why this capability is truly innovative, we need to consider a short technology history lesson.

How we got here…

In the recent past, say the past decade, there was really a divergence in how graphics was rendered between games and non-gaming applications on the PC.  Prior to the mid 1990’s, all graphics was rendered on the CPU.  But this method had performance limitations; particularly as PC gaming came into full bloom.  As 3D games became popular in the 1990’s, companies like ATI Technologies, S3, nVidia created graphics processors, called “GPUs”, to offload the processing and rendering of 3D graphics from the CPU.

Initially, there was one key impediment to the adoption of GPUs: lack of a single Application Programming Interface (API) to access the GPU.  Games needed a standardized way to call on the GPU.  Attempts like 3Dfx’s GLIDE died out, like all things proprietary tend to do.  Microsoft created DirectX (DX) which remains the prevailing standard API for calling on the GPU for 3D and other graphics related tasks.

As 3D games for the PC continued to use Microsoft’s DirectX, APIs, hardware and games evolved in realism and complexity.  The current generation of DirectX is DirectX 11 (DX11).  AMD is the only company that currently offers a DX11 top-to-bottom stack of GPUs and in the near future, DX11 Accelerated Processing Units (APUs).  DirectX features many different companies and the relevant graphics component is called Direct3D (D3D).  D3D is almost exclusively used for 3D Graphics for gaming today.

Here is where the divergence really happened…

As 3D games continued to push the envelope on the DirectX and the GPUs, mundane graphics tasks such as rendering the Windows desktop continued to use the CPU.  Applications like Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel used the CPU to render text, lines, shapes and other graphics through a CPU based API called Graphics Device Interface (GDI).

One of the many reasons that simple graphics most often used the CPU and GDI for graphics was that it was a very simple API to use and the graphics load wasn’t anywhere near intensive as a 3D game.  As web surfing evolved, it followed in the tradition of CPU + GDI, utilizing an API that essentially remained unchanged since its definition in the 1980s.

Recognition of the 3D Power…

Smart people at Microsoft and other companies started realizing that the graphics power of the GPU can be used in applications beyond 3D Gaming.  As we saw with Windows Vista, the introduction of a 3D desktop with Aero Glass led to the use of the GPU for things like alpha-blending.

While Windows Vista did away with GDI, the revolution really happened with Windows 7.  Windows 7 introduced a new API called Direct2D (D2D).  D2D is essentially a wrapper around D3D.  With D2D, any application can call on the GPU to accelerate the rendering of things like lines, curves, text, graphics and any graphics primitives. The effect of using a GPU means potentially orders of magnitude improvement in performance over the antiquated CPU + GDI.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 is one of the first applications to use D2D.  The net result is a much faster rendering of webpages and graphics.  With IE9, the GPU is used extensively to accelerate the number 1 use of PCs today, web surfing.

Cynics may argue that there is no perceivable difference between CPU and GPU based rendering on webpages today.  However this is extremely myopic.  Today, webpages are designed for the “least common denominator,” with simple graphics to ensure that all end users have a good experience with load and render times.  In short, webpage graphics today are arcane and primitive versus modern 3D video graphics—by design.

As both GPU power and a great new API in D2D become available, web designers can be expected to  greatly improve the end users’ visual experience by harvesting this power and designing much richer and complex webpages.  History proves this to be true.  As we saw with 3D Gaming in the 1990s, once a common API was established, the complexity and realism of 3D gaming greatly improved in a very short period of time.

At AMD we are very excited about D2D and applications like Microsoft’s IE9.  We are excited because end users have an opportunity to use our GPU and AMD Fusion APUs in support of fantastic new APIs to greatly accelerate their web surfing experience.   Look for more updates from us on this area in the future.

Godfrey Cheng is Director, Client Technology Unit at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.