What is silver light?

.::.Microsoft silverlight.::.

• What is silverlight?

Silverlight is a plug-in that renders XAML-based user interfaces within a browser.

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. 

• Silverlight architecture:

The core concept behind Silverlight is that you create a scene, typically in XAML, that represents the user interface that is hosted by the plug-in. Elements in the scene will raise events, either as a result of user interaction or when specific conditions occur such as a video finishing playing. Much as for Windows Forms or ASP.NET, you handle these events with code

• Server-side generation of the user interface:
  

One of the most interesting aspects of Silverlight is that the user interface is typically created using eXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML), which is then pulled down by the control and rendered to the user.

The main benefit of Silverlight is its support for features such as overlaid video, flexible 2D vector graphics and powerful animations and transformations, all of which would be complex to achieve in a pure ASP.NET AJAX environment. The fact that this UI can additionally be generated dynamically following a similar model to the other technologies does tend to make Silverlight compelling in many scenarios.

• Client-side interactivity:

The Silverlight control exposes its internal XAML DOM to the browser, enabling you to write client-side JavaScript that adapts and changes the UI, and which responds to the events that are raised from the XAML-based elements. Thus you can write client-side script that calls back to the server to obtain new UI content, much as you would do with a standard AJAX application.

References:

Developer fusion

Microsoft silverlight official website