Windows XP-64 Delayed Into 2005

vincecate writes "Although Windows XP on AMD64 was demoed at ComDex in 2002, Microsoft is now delaying the release till the first half of 2005. Given Microsoft's history on this product, it could be even more than a year before it is really released. At least one person at Intel says they did not ask Microsoft to delay the release. In any case, for the near future if you want to run a 64 bit operating system you will either be using one of the free Linux versions or the free download of Windows XP-64 beta. Though Sun started well after Microsoft, they are progressing well on their Solaris port to AMD64 and could well release earlier."

Comments

64 bit os

[robbie_air]

"In any case, for the near future if you want to run a 64 bit operating system you will either be using one of the free Linux versions or the free download of Windows XP-64 beta. "

someone has to say it: You could use Mac OS X and the PowerMac G5
http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Kiss your DOS apps goodbye

[DarkEdgeX]

16-bit appps will no longer work if you run Windows XP 64 (as I understand it, that means no DOS app compatibility and I think it even kills Windows 3.x compatibility).

I've yet to come up with a legitimate reason for why they'd drop support for that since (IIRC) AMD64 supports running 16-bit code while running in Long mode, but there's one thing to be mindful of.

As for 32-bit apps, you'd be in luck-- they should run without a problem.

Re:Kiss your DOS apps goodbye

[DarkEdgeX]

I dunno, I'm looking at Intel's documentation and they have a "Compatibility Mode" section that seems to indicate that it supports 16-bit addressing and code execution, specifically--

1.6.3.4. Compatibility Mode

Compatibility mode, within IA-32e mode, maintains binary compatibility with legacy IA-32 16-bit and 32-bit applications. Legacy 16-bit or 32-bit applications that run in Virtual 8086 mode or use hardware task management are not supported in compatibility mode.

Compatibility mode execution is selected on a code-segment basis. It allows legacy applications to coexist under a 64-bit operating system along with 64-bit applications running in 64-bit mode. An operating system running in IA-32e mode can execute existing 16-bit and 32-bit applications by clearing their code-segment descriptor's CS.L bit to 0.

Now it does mention a caveat about Virtual 8086 mode, but surely there's a way to work around this at the OS level?

Re:Kiss your DOS apps goodbye

[DarkEdgeX]

No, I'm sure finding an emulator would be easy, it's just too bad Microsoft opted to drop support from the OS outright. It was almost a given that you could rely on future versions of Windows supporting DOS and pre-Windows '95 apps (e.g. - all 16-bit Windows apps). Now we're faced with the reality that if there's any critical legacy 16-bit apps still in use they either a) must be ported to 32-bit or 64-bit, or, b) must run on top of an emulator that'll likely perform slower than if the OS had simply executed the code directly.