Internet explorer 9: HTML5, hardware acceleration and much more

Microsoft Internet explorer (IE), which is facing stiff competition from Chrome and Firefox browser, has something promising on the platter. Next version of Internet explorer, IE9 will support HTML5, new Java script engine and will utilize graphics card to render media, images and text. Internet explorer's share is continuously declining despite being default browser of  Windows operating system.

Current market share of different browsers:

2010	IE8	IE7	IE6	Firefox	Chrome	Safari	Opera
April	16.2%	9.3%	7.9%	46.4%	13.6%	3.7%	2.2%
March	15.3%	10.7%	8.9%	46.2%	12.3%	3.7%	2.2%
February	14.7%	11.0%	9.6%	46.5%	11.6%	3.8%	2.1%
January	14.3%	11.7%	10.2%	46.3%	10.8%	3.7%	2.2%

                                             Latest stats from w3cschools

IE 9 with its rich features may change the game again.

IE9 and HTML5 support

There is no doubt that HTML5 is the future of  the web. After Safari, Chrome and Firefox now it's  IE 9 which will be fully equipped to read and and execute HTML5 tags. Major tag in HTML5 is video tag and IE9 will be supporting video tag with H.264-encoded videos.

New Java script engine

IE9 will have a new Java scriprt engine, codenamed Chakra.Chakra includes a new JavaScript compiler that compiles JavaScript source code into high-quality native machine code, a new interpreter for executing script on traditional web pages, and improvements to the JavaScript runtime and libraries. IE9 includes a fast interpreter for running pages quickly on startup. For compilation, it uses as background code generator that compiles script code, and  push compiled methods back into the application. Because the code generator runs in the background, it can take advantage of  multi-core machines and generate higher-quality code, while not blocking initial execution of the application.

IE 9 and Graphics processing unit

Internet Explorer 9 will use the power of  Graphics processing unit (GPU) or graphics card of your system to render all standards-based web content – text, images, video and SVG. As IE9 will do  more stuff using the GPU, there will be less CPU load, enabling other browser subsystems to do more, as well as enabling higher frame rates for smooth animation and video playback. IE9 is based on Windows technologies like Direct2D, DirectWrite and XPS. Using  hardware acceleration, IE 9 will offer fast zooming, smooth text animations, high quality graphics printing, smooth video playback experience and this all will not drain much of your laptop's battery.

All of these GPU-powered capabilities of IE9 will make it easier for developers to create a new class of rich media web applications.