How to relate . NET Framework, CLR and Visual Studio

Visual Studio(Version) CLR .NET Framework ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visual Studio .NET (7) 1.0.3705 1.0 Visual Studio 2003 (7) 1.1.4322 1.1 Visual Studio 2005 (8) 2.0.50727 2.0 Visual Studio 2005 with .NET 3.0 Extensions 2.0.50727 2.0, 3.0 Visual Studio 2008 (9) 2.0.50727 2.0 SP1, 3.0 SP1, 3.5 Visual Studio 2008 SP1 2.0.50727 2.0 SP2, 3.0 SP2, 3.5 SP1 Visual Studio 2010 (10) 4.0.30319 4.0

Note that while 3.0 bascially only added new assemblies (same CLR), 3.5 added new assemblies, new compiler, and updated the CLR to SP1 level.
Framework 4.0 will be a whole new CLR (4.0, no CLR 3.x) which will run side-by-side with CLRs 1.1 and 2.0. It will also have all-new assemblies versioned 4.0 instead of using the 2.0 assemblies.

Framework  CLR and Assemblies            Visual Studio
----------------------------------------------------------
1.0 RTM    1.0.3705.0                    Visual Studio .NET (aka VS.NET 2002)
1.0 SP1    1.0.3705.209
1.0 SP2    1.0.3705.288
1.0 SP3    1.0.3705.6018

1.1 RTM    1.1.4322.573                  VS.NET 2003
1.1 SP1    1.1.4322.2032
1.1 SP1    1.1.4322.2300                 Windows Server 2003

2.0 RTM    2.0.50727.42                  VS2005 RTM
2.0 RTM    2.0.50727.312                 Windows Vista
2.0 SP1    2.0.50727.1433                VS2008 RTM and .Net 3.5 RTM
2.0 SP2    2.0.50727.3053                VS2008 SP1 and .Net 3.5 SP1
2.0 SP2    2.0.50727.4016                Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2
2.0 SP2    2.0.50727.4927                Windows 7

Framework  CLR           New assemblies
----------------------------------------------------------
3.0 RTM    2.0 RTM       3.0.4506.30     The only "out-of-band" non-SP framework release
3.0 SP1    2.0 SP1       3.0.4506.648    VS2008 RTM and .Net 3.5 RTM
3.0 SP2    2.0 SP2       3.0.4506.2123   VS2008 SP1 and .Net 3.5 SP1

3.5 RTM    2.0 SP1       3.5.21022.8     VS2008 RTM and .Net 3.5 RTM
3.5 SP1    2.0 SP2       3.5.30729.01    VS2008 SP1 and .Net 3.5 SP1
3.5 SP1    2.0 SP2       3.5.30729.4926  Windows 7

Framework  CLR and Assemblies            Visual Studio
----------------------------------------------------------
4.0 RTM    4.0.30319.1                   VS2010

Copy from Wikipedia:-

 

.NET Framework 3.0

.NET Framework 3.0 consists of four major new components: 

• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), formerly code-named Avalon; a new user interface subsystem and API based on XML and vector graphics, which uses 3D computer graphics hardware and Direct3D technologies.
• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), formerly code-named Indigo; a service-oriented messaging system which allows programs to interoperate locally or remotely similar to web services.
• Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) allows for building of task automation and integrated transactions using workflows.
• Windows CardSpace, formerly code-named InfoCard; a software component which securely stores a person's digital identities and provides a unified interface for choosing the identity for a particular transaction, such as logging in to a website.

.NET Framework 3.0 uses the Common Language Runtime of .NET Framework 2.0

.NET Framework 3.5

version 3.5 features such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ, provide support for additional features on Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded CE devices, adds new functionality and provides performance improvements under certain conditions, especially with WPF where 20-45% improvements are expected. Two new data service components have been added, the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services. Two new assemblies for web development, System.Web.Abstraction and System.Web.Routing, have been added; these are used in the ASP.NET MVC Framework and, reportedly, will be utilized in the future release of ASP.NET Forms applications.

.NET Framework 4

Key focuses for this release are:

• Parallel Extensions to improve support for parallel computing, which target multi-core or distributed systems.To this end, technologies like PLINQ (Parallel LINQ), a parallel implementation of the LINQ engine, and Task Parallel Library, which exposes parallel constructs via method calls., are included.
• New Visual Basic .NET and C# language features, such as implicit line continuations, dynamic dispatch, named parameters, and optional parameters.
• Support for Code Contracts.
• Inclusion of new types to work with arbitrary-precision arithmetic (System.Numerics.BigInteger) and complex numbers (System.Numerics.Complex).