Elitebastards have posted a DirectX 11 overview. They take a high-level look at just what new and improved functionality DirectX 11 should have to offer over its predecessors:

As far as features are concerned, everything on show here is pretty much what we've expected from the API for a little while now. Tessellation has been attempted before, from ATI's Truform through to the Xbox 360, without ever being heavily used, but will DirectX 11 change that? Only time will tell, and the performance of the tessellation units of future hardware will play a big part in its success, but we can only hope that this iteration of the API coupled with the shared functionality against Microsoft's console will combine to finally bring more detailed art assets to us all.

The compute shader was another obvious move, and although it doesn't look like it will be blazing trails against CUDA or OpenCL just yet it could prove to be a solid start, and if it sets a standard for the creation of GPU-accelerated physics and AI, then that's all we can ask for, while their use of the Compute Shader for image post-processing and the like could be interesting in a number of ways.

Multi-threading is the most immediately interest featuring, seeing as it could improve performance and frame rate consistency for owners of DirectX 10 and 10.1 graphics boards if the IHVs decide to update their drivers (which they surely will). How much multi-threading will improve things remains to be seen, but anything that could help limit and remove stuttering can only be a good thing.

Overall then, DirectX 11 is clearly an attempt to build on the foundation laid by DirectX 10, while adding new functionality in where required. Thus, we wait with anticipation to see what its release will bring, and of course more importantly exactly what content creators can do with it as time goes on.