Inside look at modern web browser

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In this article from Mariko Kosaka she walks you though insides of the Chrome browser from high-level architecture to the specifics of the rendering pipeline. If you ever wondered how the browser turns your code into a functional website, or you are unsure why a specific technique is suggested for performance improvements, then the article and next 3 ones in this series is for you.

In order to understand the environment that the browser is running, we need to understand a few computer parts and what they do.

The article focuses on explaining:

  • CPU – Central Processing Unit
  • GPU – Graphics Processing Unit
  • Executing program on Process and Thread
  • Browser Architecture
  • Which process controls what?
  • The benefit of multi-process architecture in Chrome

The important thing to note here is that these different architectures are implementation details. There is no standard specification on how one might build a web browser. One browser’s approach may be completely different from another.

Wonderful schemas and charts are included for better understanding of the topic. Enjoyable post!

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Tags web-development css frontend ux browsers