Mozilla has released Firefox 52, bringing support for WebAssembly (also known as wasm), a low-level programming language for in-browser client-side scripting, albeit currently in development. WebAssembly as portable stack machine, is designed to be faster to parse and execute than JavaScript.

WebAssembly will enable developers to create CPU-intensive game apps, with full rendering in 3D, and video editors that run in near-native speed without relying on plug-ins.

While the emerging technology, WebAssembly is an offshoot of Mozilla research project, it was first announced in mid 2015, and was demonstrated executing Unity's Angry Bots in Firefox on March 15, 2016. Meanwhile, Apple (WebKit), Google (Chromium) and Microsoft (Edge) have also subscribed to WebAssembly.

WebAssembly has been tagged as the leading standard for both current web apps and newer categories that may have been stymied by performance issues.

Google had announced WebAssembly support in Chrome 57, which is slated to be released on March 14, however, Mozilla's Firefox 52 support for WebAssembly, which is now available for download has taken the steam out of the Google's browser.

If you're a Firefox user and wanted to be part of the early action, you can trigger an update by selecting ‘About Firefox” from the Firefox menu and follow the prompts.

Mozilla fires up Firefox with support for PC games on browser

Mozilla has released Firefox 52, bringing support for WebAssembly (also known as wasm), a low-level programming language for in-browser client-side scripting, albeit currently in development. WebAssembly as portable stack machine, is designed to be faster to parse and execute than JavaScript.

WebAssembly will enable developers to create CPU-intensive game apps, with full rendering in 3D, and video editors that run in near-native speed without relying on plug-ins.

While the emerging technology, WebAssembly is an offshoot of Mozilla research project, it was first announced in mid 2015, and was demonstrated executing Unity's Angry Bots in Firefox on March 15, 2016. Meanwhile, Apple (WebKit), Google (Chromium) and Microsoft (Edge) have also subscribed to WebAssembly.

WebAssembly has been tagged as the leading standard for both current web apps and newer categories that may have been stymied by performance issues.

Google had announced WebAssembly support in Chrome 57, which is slated to be released on March 14, however, Mozilla's Firefox 52 support for WebAssembly, which is now available for download has taken the steam out of the Google's browser.

If you're a Firefox user and wanted to be part of the early action, you can trigger an update by selecting ‘About Firefox” from the Firefox menu and follow the prompts.