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Chakra (JScript engine)

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This article is about the engine of Internet Explorer. For the engine of Microsoft Edge Legacy, see Chakra (JavaScript engine). For other uses, see Chakra (disambiguation).
Chakra
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial release2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
TypeJScript engine
LicenseProprietary

Chakra is a proprietary JScript engine developed by Microsoft. It is used in the Internet Explorer web browser.

Microsoft later developed a new JavaScript engine for its Microsoft Edge browser, which is confusingly also called Chakra. Microsoft Edge switched to the V8 JavaScript engine in 2020.

Features

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A distinctive feature of the engine is that it JIT compiles scripts on a separate CPU core, parallel to the web browser.[1][2] Though Microsoft has in the past pointed out that other elements, such as rendering and marshalling, are just as important for a browser's overall performance,[3] their improvements to the engine were in response to evolving competing browsers, compared to which IE8 was lagging behind in terms of client-side script processing speed.[4]

History

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SunSpider tests performed on November 18, 2009 showed the PDC version of IE9 executing scripts much faster than IE8, but slower than Firefox 3.6, Chrome 4, and WebKit Nightly.[3] The same test performed on March 15, 2010 showed the first IE9 Platform Preview (using the then-current version of Chakra) to be faster than Firefox (with SpiderMonkey), but slower than Safari (with SquirrelFish Extreme), Chrome (with V8), and Opera (with Carakan).

On March 8, 2011, Microsoft published results showing the 32-bit Internet Explorer 9 to be faster than Safari, Firefox (with TraceMonkey), Chrome, and Opera.[5]

March 2011 performance tests for ZDNET concluded that Internet Explorer 9 (32-bit), Chrome 10, and Firefox 4 release candidate were "pretty evenly matched."[6]

In 2012, subsequent versions of Chakra, such as the version included in Internet Explorer 10, introduced additional performance changes, including JIT compilation on x64 and ARM architectures, and optimizations related to floating point math and garbage collection.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (March 10, 2011). "Chrome 10 vs. Internet Explorer 9 Reconsidered". ZDNet. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
  2. ^ Muchmore, Michael (March 16, 2010). "Internet Explorer 9: An Early Look". PC Magazine. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Hachamovitch, Dean (November 23, 2009). "An Early Look At IE9 for Developers". IEBlog on Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  4. ^ Hachamovitch, Dean (March 18, 2010). "HTML5, Hardware Accelerated: First IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers". IEBlog on Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  5. ^ "WebKit Sunspider JavaScript Benchmark Results". Internet Explorer 9 Platform Demos: Test Drive. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2011-03-24. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  6. ^ Adrian Kingsley-Hughes (March 15, 2011). "IE9 vs Chrome 10 vs Firefox 4 RC vs Opera 11.01 vs Safari 5 - The BIG browser benchmark!". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2011-03-20. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
  7. ^ "Advances in JavaScript Performance in IE10 and Windows 8". Microsoft. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
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