While the Kindle Fire tablet consumed much of the focus atAmazon ’s launch eventWednesday in New York , the fellowship also picture off a bit of potentially radical software engineering science as well , namely the new internet browser for the Fire , call Silk .
Silk is different from other browsers because it can be configured to lease Amazon ’s cloud overhaul do much of the work get together complex Web Page . The result is that users may experience much fast loading time for Web varlet , compare to other mobile devices , allot to the company .
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos enclose Silk during his tonic after unveiling the company ’s $ 199 Kindle Fire tablet , which will be available Nov. 15 .
During the introduction , Bezos note that most modern Web pages , such as Amazon ’s own or CNN ’s , are complex creations , with multiple photos , animations , and complex scripts and mark - up code . The CNN home varlet , for instance , is build by the web internet browser from 53 stable mental image , 39 dynamic figure , three Flash files , 30 JavaScript files from seven dissimilar domain , 29 hypertext mark-up language file and seven caesium ( Cascading Style Sheet ) files . ”
“ The modern Web has become a complicated seat , ” Bezos tell . As a outcome , “ It is hard — challenge — for wandering equipment to exhibit mod Web Sir Frederick Handley Page rapidly . ”
To speed page give on the Kindle Fire , Silk use a “ split web internet browser ” approach , Bezos pronounce . “ It partially lives in EC2 and it partly lives on Kindle Fire . ”
All the drug user ’s Web Thomas Nelson Page requests will be send through a service in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud ( EC2 ) for processing . The religious service will act as a cache armed service , as well as a staging area where the more complex bits of internet pages can be pre - processed before being redirected to the user ’s web web browser .
EC2 has , “ for all practical function , limitless computational power and limitless bandwidth , ” Bezos state .
Silk is full running as a stand - alone web browser app , explain Jon Jenkins , director of chopine analytic thinking at Amazon.com , at a demonstration kiosk after the event . It supports HTML5 , JavaScript , CSS and associated next - multiplication internet standards . It also stand Flash . Amazon build the software system from the ground up , using the WebKit open - source web browser engine .
All the exploiter ’s postulation , however , are directed to the EC2 servicing , which then fetch the pages from the generator and optimizes the content for the platform . Complex parts of JavaScript may be pre - process and images may be downsized to a more accomplishable size of it . Many unwashed but rarely update element of a popular Web page are served directly from the EC2 memory cache , such as the CNN.com logotype .
“ EC2 knows that logo has n’t changed for months , so it does n’t wait until getting the hypertext mark-up language file back before labour that logo back to you , ” Jenkins said .
The site ’s original content , as well as mental object personalized for each substance abuser , will be quest from the content provider .
The service also practice subject compression techniques , such as re - encoding video and range before sending them to a machine . The armed service also keeps joining constantly open to pop site , which reduces the time needed to negotiate connection on a one - to - one basis .
Amazon also sped mathematical operation by doing away with the HTTP protocol , which is normally used to convey web varlet from the server to the drug user . The HTTP protocol “ is not the most effective protocol of the innovative connection , ” Jenkins said . “ It does n’t multiplex content well — it is laborious to get a bidirectional flow of content . ”
As an alternative , Silk use a version of the Google SPDY communications protocol . HTTP is still used between the content provider and the EC2 .
The web browser will determine whether to download the mobile or the stable version of any given website , free-base on the capabilities of the ironware , as well as the richness of the site itself . “ It learns effectively as you ’re graze to get the good possible version of the content to you , ” Jenkins said . This works particularly well on popular situation , where many of the common elements can be hive up .
Of course , the fact that all the user ’s Web browsing is being directed through Amazon will raise the involvement of privacy advocates , who might see the technology as invasive . Jenkins denied that Amazon would be doing any personal traffic analytic thinking , though . “ There is no personal information stored on the EC2 at all , ” Jenkins suppose . He also take down that it is potential for drug user to turn off the EC2 service altogether and use the web internet browser in a standard way .
The ship’s company also drop a plenty of fourth dimension making certain that one user would not accidentally be attend another user ’s capacity when check over pop sites such as Facebook . “ Some of the earlier efforts that other companies made at this did result in that . So we thought very very cautiously about that . That was just unaccepted as an outcome . ”
Amazon ’s approach to the tablet is an “ interesting spin ” in a littered marketplace , one psychoanalyst said .
“ While the split web browser app computer architecture is not new , Opera having been a musician for a couple of years , I find the overall strategy to be an interesting spin on the me - too Android software program we have see so far , and possibly a game changer , ” noted Al Hilwa , IDC psychoanalyst for covering development computer software . “ In one fall swoop Amazon harnesses its overlooking lead in cloud service , the content richness of a leading on-line retailer and its successful Kindle commercial enterprise strategy to deliver what might become one of the most effectual counterpoison to the mobile bandwidth crunch . ”
The Fire uses the Gingerbread physical body of Android with a hard customized interface . Amazon had no contiguous plans to port Silk for other platforms , Jenkins tell .
