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Microsoft launched a platform preview of Internet Explorer 9 recently. It’s not a full browser yet, so much as a framework for a browser. But it already has one of the features I’m most loking forward to: support for hardware acceleration.
The folks at NVIDIA grabbed a pre-release Asus Eee PC 1201PN and fired up the Internet Explorer 9 demo to see how it works. The long and short of it is that even though the Eee PC 1201PN has a low power Intel Atom processor, it can handle some pretty intense web-based graphics powered by HTML5, Javascript, and Direct 2D technology thanks to the NVIDIA ION graphics processor.
The Eee PC 1201PN has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU and next-generation ION graphics, as well as a 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel HD display and HDMI output. For the sake of comparison, NVIDIA tested a Toshiba netbook with an Atom processor and integrated graphics. The results? Not so pretty.
Internet Explorer 9 Demo on NVIDIA ION Netbook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIOee9u7kHs#normal)