Introducing the March 2005 CTP: What's New In "Avalon"

Longhorn Developer Center Home: Introducing the March 2005 CTP: What's New In "Avalon": "Introduction to 'Avalon'
'Avalon' is the code name for Microsoft's unified presentation subsystem for Windows. It consists of a display engine and a managed-code framework. 'Avalon' unifies how Windows creates, displays, and manipulates documents, media, and user interfaces, which enables developers and designers to create visually stunning, differentiated user experiences that improve customer connection.
The 'Avalon' Engine. The 'Avalon' engine unifies the way developers and designers experience documents, media, and user interface (UI), providing a single runtime for browser-based experiences, forms-based applications, graphics, video, audio, and documents. 'Avalon' is built on top of DirectX, which enables it to unleash the full power of the graphics hardware present in modern computers, and is engineered to exploit advances in hardware moving forward. For example, the 'Avalon' vector-based rendering engine enables applications to scale to take advantage of high-dpi monitors without requiring extra work on the part of the developer or user. Similarly, when 'Avalon' detects a video card that supports hardware acceleration, it takes advantage of it.
The 'Avalon' Framework. The 'Avalon' framework delivers solutions for media, user interface design, and documents that go well beyond what developers have today. 'Avalon' is designed for extensibility, enabling developers to create their own controls on top of the 'Avalon' engine from scratch or by subclassing existing 'Avalon' controls. Central to the 'Avalon' framework are controls for shapes, documents, images, video, animation, 3-D, and "