When?

[GZFant]

when is Intel going to catch up to AMD and Apple and release a 64bit CPU? I know transforming everything to 64bit will take a long time but think of how incredible things will be when it hits the mainstream........

 

[Lonyo]

What's Itanium?

The Itanium architecture does far more than just extend the Intel architecture to 64 bits.

Itanium

In terms of mainstream, there's no real need at the moment.

 

[GZFant]

Thanks for the info..........sorry for the lack of knowledge on this subject

 

[Lonyo]

Well, they're not cheap, and your average user has no need to know about server chips.

They are server chips though, so nothing is really available to the mainstream user, unlike the G5 and the AMD chip when it eventually comes, so in a way they haven't released a 64-bit chip for "us".

 

[EeyoreX]

While it is true that Intel has not released a 64-bit chip for "us" (neither has AMD at this point for that matter) I don't really see the point of a 64-bit processor for "us" at the moment. Perhaps Intel is smart in not sinking the resources into this at this point (even though they have MORE than enough resorces to throw away on any project they want)?

Anyhow, I think the bottom line, as Lonyo pointed out, there is simply no need for "us" to have a 64-bit processor at this point. I mean, AFAIK there is no 64-bit version of any game. MS Office and other popular mainstream software is not yet available for 64-bit processors. So, even if there were "mainstream" CPUs from Intel available at this point, you still would have to run everything in 32-bit compatability mode, which may cost you performance. We'll have to see how the 64-bit offering from AMD performs, as it is supposed to run 32-bit apps extremely well.

Personally, I'll be waiting a while until/if 64-bit computing actually becomes mainstream, and I hope it does, since I much prefer AMD to Intel and think that if 64-bit computing on the PC doesn't fly AMD will be done for.

\Dan

 

[Lyfer]

So you're gonna buy a 64bit cpu?