Microsoft has released the preview for its platform Internet Explorer 9, which will also be the last. It will be in effect in August and the publisher has confirmed earlier in the week that the beta of its browser would be available in September. Also, the latter is still not preview what will be the beta, but the sight of scores in some tests should not be far away.

One thing is clear: Microsoft had indicated that the Acid3 test was not a priority, but Preview 4 now obtains a score of 95. The score is compared to the 55 points scored by the first preview and especially the 18 points of Internet Explorer 8. Currently, Chrome, Safari and Opera all have a score of 100, while Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 gets 97. The Acid3 test is not an end in itself, because it is ultimately an assemblage of features that are discussed, but the indicative value is interesting.

Many of the new Preview 4 on the support of the Canvas element, and its acceleration by the graphics card. Microsoft also asked the developers who are testing Internet Explorer 9 to focus especially on the graphics acceleration on the GPU. It concerns the SVG, Canvas, video, audio, and text (via DirectWrite for the latter). The images are also supported, as evidenced by the use of mapping services like Google Maps and Bing Maps.
Apart from this acceleration has now reached maturity, another big change in this Preview 4 is the native integration of the JavaScript virtual machine within the rendering engine of Internet Explorer 9. This machine, called Chakra, would prove far more swift than the previous implementation as a COM object used by the browser. The DOM is now shared between the browser and JavaScript engine, based on ECMAScript 5.

As for performance, moreover, we delivered some tests with SunSpider, which measures the performance of JavaScript browsers.

Here are the results of Internet Explorer 9:

* Internet Explorer 8: 4363.8 ms
* Internet Explorer 9 PP4: 596.6 ms
* Firefox 4.0 beta 2: 820.6 ms
10.60 * Opera: 558.2 ms
10.70 * Opera alpha: 561.8 ms
* Safari 5.0.1: 631 ms
* Chrome 5.0: 547 ms
* Chrome 6.0 dev: 489.6 ms

Chrome remains the star of JavaScript with a version 6.0 that pushes the limits of what we knew. But let’s be clear: the scores are within the range of about 500-800, if one puts aside the Internet Explorer 8, which is truly all alone in his corner. In other words, the performance side, there is no more bad browser, which is important news for users, since all the editors work hard to steal the spotlight in this field.

It is now clear that Microsoft has revised the way it does with its browser, because the work is clearly visible. Remember that performance is an important element for the user, but they are not everything. The typical person does not really care either to support technology, but the interface is an important element in cons. Internet Explorer does not ultimately changed its face since version 7, and refreshments along with new features will be most welcome. This will normally be the mission of the public beta, which will arrive next month.

You can find an article about Internet Explorer 9 ancestor here.