Microsoft reveals details of Gazelle browser

Microsoft claims that Gazelle will offer significant security improvements compared to other browsers

Microsoft researchers are working on a new browser called Gazelle which it promises will have some impressive new features and capabilities.

The firm released a research paper (PDF) late last week, saying that the new browser would offer significant security improvements compared to other browsers, including Internet Explorer.

"No existing browsers, including new architectures like Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome and OP, have a multi-principal operating system construction that gives a browser-based operating system the exclusive control to manage the protection of all system resources among web site principals," Microsoft said in the report.

The browser will change this tradition by being built on its own kernel, in effect allowing it to operate as an operating system. This means that Gazelle could intelligently identify traffic, and react to anything malicious.

"Our prototype implementation and evaluation experience indicates that it is realistic to turn an existing browser into a multi-principal operating system that yields significantly stronger security and robustness with acceptable performance and backward compatibility," the researchers wrote.

The browser is only open for discussion at this stage, and there are no current plans for a release in any form.

"The implementation and evaluation of our IE-based prototype shows promise of a practical multi-principal operating system-based browser in the real world," the researchers concluded.