Even though Microsoft is still months away from an official consumer launch of its new Web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), the company’s executives Tuesday announced the design enhancements and projected performance improvements slated for the new browser, at Microsoft’s MIX developer conference in Las Vegas.

Microsoft has released the still-unfinished IE9 browser as a Platform Preview for developers currently enables the Web developers to “test drive” the new browser; and provide feedback on the progress Microsoft is making on its development.

Noting that the “The Platform Preview, and the feedback loop it is part of, makes a major change from previous IE releases,” Microsoft’s IE general manager Dean Hachamovich said: “Combined with our engagement with our standards bodies and the development of industry standard test suits, this open community discussion and earlier and more frequent builds reflect our commitment to the Web.”

With the IE9’s JavaScript engine, “Chakra,” specifically designed to accelerate speed and boost performance; Microsoft is looking at achieve its “duration of an eye-blink” speed-benchmark for the browser.

Saying that the IE9 will be the “first browser to provide hardware-accelerated SVG support” – thereby allowing it to benefit from available dedicated hardware that can speed up HTML and graphics performance on Web pages -, Microsoft is already touting that browser for its faster speed, increased responsiveness and better graphics, vis-à-vis the earlier IE browsers.