Microsoft released Monday beta versions of separate service packs for the Visual Studio 2008 software development platform and the accompanying .Net Framework 3.5, a Microsoft official said in a blog.

General-release SP (Service Packs) 1 for Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 are due this summer. SP1 for Visual Studio is the first release for Visual Studio that offers full support for the SQL Server 2008 database, said S. "Soma" Somasegar, senior vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, in a blog entry.

But Microsoft stressed that the beta service pack for .Net Framework 3.5 does have compatibility issues with the Expression Blend tool as well as with the Silverlight 2 beta and Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008.

"This beta release is for early testing and feedback. As a beta release, we recommend you only install the service pack on test computers," Microsoft said in its release notes.

SQL Server 2008 offers such features as the ability to store data from structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. It is due to ship in the third quarter of this year.

Other capabilities cited in the SP 1 beta release for Visual Studio 2008 include improved functionality and performance for Windows Presentation Foundation designers and additional tools for Visual Basic and Visual C++. Office 2007 Ribbon functionality is highlighted as well. Also offered are richer JavaScript capabilities and improved Web development and site deployment.

This service pack also offers improvements for the Visual Studio Team System application lifecycle management platform, including support for work item-tracking via the Office 2007 ribbon and version control of unbound files.

SP1 for .Net Framework 3.5 introduces the ADO.Net Entity Framework. This framework raises the level of abstraction for data programmers to help eliminate the impedance mismatch between data models and languages.

The service pack for .Net Framework 3.5 also offers ADO.Net Data services to simplify data access code in applications, Somasegar said. .Net Framework presents Microsoft's managed code programming model for building Windows applications.

SP1 for Net Framework 3.5 introduces more controls, a streamlined setup, improved AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), and a new graphics features.

Also featured is .Net Framework Client Profile, a redistribution of .Net Framework optimized for clients.

"Some of the benefits of this profile are immediate responsiveness with a 200K bootstrapper to enable the fastest response to the application setup URL, an integrated custom UI allowing packaging of your application and the framework for a seamless install experience, and lastly incredible install speed at 26.5 MB (this translates to about six minutes on a typical connection)," Somasegar said.

The SP1 beta for Visual Studio 2008 can be downloaded here while the SP1 beta for .Net Framework 3.5 is accessible here.

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 in November 2007.