Mozilla working on fast JavaScript engine

Mozilla, maker of the Firefox search engine, has developed a new JavaScript engine for its flagship product. Dubbed JaegerMonkey, it outpaces the current TraceMonkey engine in one significant benchmark test. The new engine will make it into Firefox 4.0, as a launch date is planned for September 1. The company is also hoping to outpace other browsers thanks to the new code.

In its current, unfinished form, JaegerMonkey is still behind in terms of performance compared to the Webkit browsers of Chrome and Safari. The code for the engine is written from scratch and the company says it's generating good machine code at this point. There are still weaknesses to work out, Mozilla admits, including function calls that are about 10 times slower than the competition.

JavaScript has become a crucial part of web speed tests as many web apps and other complex sites now use the scripting language. Safari was one of the earliest to have JavaScript as a defining feature, but Chrome has quickly grown in market share owing partly to rapid improvements in speed. Safari 5 only recently helped close the gap again, but both have consistently outperformed Firefox in recent months. [via ConceivablyTech]

By Electronista Staff