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Microsoft To Dump 32-Bit After Vista

Posted by kdawson on from the at-least-it-fixes-Y2K38 dept.

SlinkySausage writes "Microsoft has used its annual hardware engineering conference to announce that Windows Vista and Server 2008 will be the last versions of Windows capable of booting on 32-bit CPUs such as Intel Pentium 4 and Core Duo. AMD, which introduced 64-bit CPUs early — much to the derision of Intel, which said there was no use for them at the time — must be delighted with Microsoft's decision. Owners of first-generation Intel Macs that used (32-bit only) Core Duo CPUs may not be so happy knowing that Vista will be the last Windows they will be able to run."

1 of 527 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Don't fall into the trap by hackstraw · · Score: 5, Informative

    Before anyone falls into the trap I almost fell into, please note that the Core Duo is not the 64-bit capable Core2 Duo.

    Thanks for the heads up.

    I find the "PC" world funny. I've used higher end equipment for quite some time, and I've found myself back into "commodity" land and its pretty confusing.

    The summary says "AMD, which introduced 64-bit CPUs early". Huh?

    DEC Alpha chips were introduced in 1992 and were 64-bit. SPARC went 64-bit in 1995. MIPS went 64-bit in 1991. PA-RISC in 1996.

    AMD came out with 64bit/32bit hybrid chips in what? 2002-2003?

    How is this early?

    Also, Intel introduced the Itanium, a pure 64-bit chip in 2001. They had a strange i860 chip in the late 80s that was 64-bit.

    I've been running 64-bit linux for about 10 years plus or minus 6 months.

    To me, I find the x86_64 stuff to be a hack and late to the game. The only reason its remotely interesting is that its cheap, but calling this new or interesting is completely wrong.