Silverlight Architecture

This topic describes the essential architecture and components of Microsoft Silverlight. Silverlight is not only an appealing end-user application for displaying rich and interactive Web and media content. It is also a powerful yet lightweight platform for developing portable, cross-platform, networked applications that integrate data and services from many sources. Furthermore, Silverlight enables you to build user interfaces that will significantly enhance the typical end user experience compared with traditional Web applications.

While Silverlight as a client-side runtime environment seems simple and compact in size, the Silverlight development platform integrates a number of features and complex technologies, making them accessible for developers. To create effective Silverlight-based applications, developers need a working knowledge of the platform architecture.