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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."

4 of 527 comments (clear)

  1. YES! by Quantam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As a programmer I've been waiting for this. I was actually disappointed that Vista would support 32-bit CPUs, but I guess there was no way around that, given how common 32-bit x86s still are. Having one architecture to support will make things much easier, as well as get people to actually update their legacy code. Now if MS could get them to actually fix all the problems due to generally crappy code (like requiring admin)...

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  2. Good! by default+luser · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The 4GB memory barrier is fast-aproaching for high-end users, and dealing with it is a MESS. Most motherboards don't support PAE (either due to lack of re-mappable PCI address space, or even lack of 36-bit address lines!), so we have a hard-limit of 2-3GB in the most popular version of Vista (32-bit). This is going to be a rough few years for game developers.

    I really don't see why Microsoft went 32-bit on this version anyway...I'd say over %80 of the potential upgrade platforms and over %95 of all shipping PCs today support x86-64 mode. But when you look back, history paves the way:

    Windows 386 = Windows 2.0 with 32-bit enhancements bolted-on. Equivilant of Windows XP 64
    Windows 3 = crossover version with support for 16-bit and 32-bit processors. Equivilant of Vista.
    Windows 95 = supports only 32-bit processors. Equivilant to the next revision of Windows.

    Too bad Microsoft didn't have the balls to jump the gun and make Vista 64-bit only.

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  3. Re:as the owner of a first gen intel mac.... by Kadin2048 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, what I thought was crazy is that Apple customers aren't the only ones using the Core processors, why single them out? Is Apple even the largest customer of Intel 32-bit processors?

    Apparently because on Slashdot, making some sort of backhanded Apple comment at the end of every story guarantees a lot of comments.

    I thought it was a total non sequitur, too. Apple users will be upset? How about all the people who can't reboot into OS X and go on their merry way? I think they're going to be a bit more pissed.

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  4. Re:as the owner of a first gen intel mac.... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since I've been itching to try out the new Charts feature on Google Spreadsheets anyway, I threw together a spreadsheet of the Windows memory requirements:

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pdgLUlhjY22 Avkn0zhNfTcQ

    If that isn't a hockey stick chart, I don't know what is.

    BTW, does anyone know how to get the labels to show up correctly?

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