64-bit O/S will work on current hardware?

[AnotherGuy]

Hi.
I was just wondering, will the new 64-bit operating system work on the current hardware... motherboard.. video card.. or do we have to change everything for that...

Just like the Athlon64 processor.. do we have to wait for 64-bit compatible video cards and motherboards?

 

[zephyrprime]

In theory it would be possible to have MB that took a 32bit and 64bit cpu if a cpu maker kept the same pinout but none have ever been made like that that i know of. The video card doesn't matter but might need new drivers.

 

[DaveSimmons]

For hardware, only the CPU needs to be 64-bit. There's almost no benefit from having a 64-bit OS for 99% of desktop users though, so don't worry about it.

If you want to read more about the (underwhelming) wonders of 64-bitness, search "64" in current and archived threads to find several long threads discussing this.

 

[AnotherGuy]

thanks...
Actually you are right. there shouldnt be any difference from 64 bit and 32 bit. 64 bit O/S will be created only to fullfill the needs that some applications or O/S itself might have when they are storing data into variables, in other words to have more memory so they can store more data on 'em. Correct me here pls if im wrong.

 

[drag]

hardware is hardware. As long as everything sticks to the x86 ISA stuff then it won't matter exept in the software.


Any software would have to be recompiled from source code to run natively on 64 bit machines. The kernel would have to be changed, so then any drivers would have to be updated to use the new/different kernel, since they need to sit between the kernel and the hardware in order to act.


Right now if you want 64bit OS to try out the only one aviable for AMD's x86-64 is Linux.(specificly SuSE Professional version for AMD-64. $79) Which is not suprising since Linux has been running on 64-bit hardware for years and years now. Windows of course has a very limited developer base when compared to Linux (IBM, AMD, HP and plenty of other companies have put much time and money to aid the developement of Linux on AMD-64) so their windows XP-64 keeps on getting delayed over and over again.

Which sucks because it keeps the prices of cpu chips high, since windows users can use them properly and won't buy them untill MS quits messing around.

The only thing you need to worry about is driver support then you will be able to use your current hardware on x86-64 motherboard and CPU.

 

[Johnbear007]

It will be years before 64 bit is mainstream. look at how long the migration to 32bit took. The hardware you are running now will be obsolete by the time a 64bit platform offers you an real consumer level advantages or applications.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
It will be years before 64 bit is mainstream. look at how long the migration to 32bit took. The hardware you are running now will be obsolete by the time a 64bit platform offers you an real consumer level advantages or applications.

Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner!

64 bit processors aren't new, and have been available in servers and high-end workstations for years! CPU's like the Digital Alpha, IBM PowerPC, Sun UltraSPARC, Intel Itanium, AMD Opteron all offer 64-bit archectiture, but none of them have been terribly popular so far. They still cost too much, and the selection of 64-bit optimized software is still slim. Hell, you still can't get a 64-bit consumer version of Windows yet!

At least the prices are finally coming down, though, so low cost 64-bit consumer workstations might finally become a reality within the next two years. Wait for the 64-bit operating system and software to be available first, though.