How long until 64-bit architecture is ready for primetime?

[ThC 129 0]

Im looking to upgrade my box, well every computer junky always is . And i was wondering if i should start looking at and buying pieces now, or wait a little bit until the 64-bit architecture is ready for prime time. Right now the only difference between my system and new systems is pretty much DDR Ram as compared to my SDR ram, and faster things, so an upgrade isnt a complete overhaul at this point. So do you guys think i should build a new box now or wait a little bit until 64-bit is ready for the go ahead for prime time systems?

[Brian Frank 0]

Looks like it's gonna be a few years before it hits the mainstream desktop. It's gonna start up high with the Itanium and AMD's x86-64 chip and gradually migrate down to our level.

 

After that settles in, we'll all be waiting for 128-bit architecture to hit:p

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

nah, i will wait for 256!

 

i say wait for now

 

wait till next year some time, as alot of new vid cards are being developed right now,

 

also wait to see how high intel / amd goes with their cpu's, as they have slowed down somewhat on releases lately, but alot of good mobo's have been coming out with high fsb's, so who knows

[sapiens74 0]

Will depend on Intel. Nothing will hit mainstream until they do it

[BladeRunner 0]

I'm refusing to do any major upgrades until we really know the direction of hardware/software and 64bit.

Next upgrade I shall be doing is moving from my 1.8Ghz P4 to a Northwood B and that is about it.

I'm excited about Serial ATA, that might be rather good on performance.

Other than that I don't plan on doing another full system upgrade until I'm happy what I purchcase will last me a couple of years.

[ThC 129 0]

Yeah i might upgrade my motherboard to DDR ram and a GeForce 4 and maybe change out my 5400RPM drive with a 7200 other than that I guess it would be better to wait.

[Admiral LSD 0]

Quote:

Will depend on Intel. Nothing will hit mainstream until they do it

It depends a lot more on M$ really and they;re the weak link in the 64 bit chain... It took them 15 years to deliver the first fully 32 bit consumer OS (Windows XP Home) after Intel released the i386. How long will it take them with 64 bit?

[Bursar 0]

There isn't really any justification for waiting for MS. There are other Operating Systems available that would make use of 64bit architecture.

 

In the server arena especially, the extra performance would be welcome. Once there is a point to running Quake on a 64bit platform, then maybe MS will look at releasing a dekstop based 64 bit solution. Until then it's the realm of the servers, and there are other OS's about for that.

 

It also depends on how Intel implement their 64bit solution. My memory is very hazy here, but I think I remember something about Intel 64 bit chips not being particularly good at running the 'old' 32bit code.

 

AMD on the other hand are planning on producing chips that should work just as well in 32bit as 64bit.

 

As I say, my memory is hazy on this point, and a lot of it is likely to be marketing buff anyway

[Paolo 0]

Quote:

It depends a lot more on M$ really and they;re the weak link in the 64 bit chain... It took them 15 years to deliver the first fully 32 bit consumer OS (Windows XP Home) after Intel released the i386. How long will it take them with 64 bit?

I doubt anyone considering 64bit computing will want to run a consumer OS (like XP Home). 32bit power users were using NT4/Win2k as well as Linux, 64bit will be just the same - and there is already Win64 code anyway. XP-64 won't be 15 years away.

P.