Are 64 bit processors ahead of their time?

[the lemming]

When I bought my comp with its 64 bit chip three years ago the Sales Rep said that 64 bit architecture would speed up my computing experience. However three years down the line I can't help notice that the Software Industry hasn't fully embraced 64 bit yet.

Or is it me?

[Bachstelze]

The Sales Rep is not an IT specialist, all he wanted was to sell you a $50 more expensive CPU :p

But I think it's normal that 64 bit CPUs are not used at their full potential yet. Give it a few more years.

[a12ctic]

64bit processors cost no more than 32bit processors! Its a little unnessissary for the home user, but its an update that needed to be made for the future. I love my a64 :)

[Bachstelze]

64bit processors cost no more than 32bit processors!

They did three years ago...

[EdThaSlayer]

64 bit processors can just handle more than 4gb of r.a.m while 32 bit cpus can't. I bet you don't have more than a gig of ram. :)

[a12ctic]

They did three years ago...

Not really, the a64 3000+ 64bit costed less than p43.0ghz intel chips and performed about 2x as good in most situations.

[mech7]

Well i have been running a 64 bit OS for about year and a half now.. with 32 bit it does not recognize all my ram so it is not ahead of it's time... id rather say developers are outdated in time :D It is all going to change over a few year though, Vista is the last 32 bit OS from MS after that everybody is going 64 bit wether they like it or not ;)

Most 3d software comes in 64 bit versions allready btw :)

[Fundi]

I used ubuntu 64bit for a while and it was slightly faster. Unfortunately though I use some propietory applications that only have 32 bit versions. I may try 64bit again soon when i have the effort and gnash can play youtube videos.

[Andrewie]

When Microsfot releases Vista service pack two, and when Opensuse comes out with nspluginwrapper for their firefox I'm going all 64-bit

[lsalminen]

Well, before they came out with 64 bit processors, there were only 32 bits. Think of how many years it took to completely use up 32 bit processors potential.

[smiggs]

Mainstream adoption of 64 Bit will be painful, a lot of legacy hardware may struggle without signed drivers on Windows Vista so companies such as Adobe have held off from going 64 bit because there is very little demand for their applications on 64 Bit OS.

The adoption of 64 bit on the desktop will be a huge opportunity for Linux to win people over, I'd say it was imperative that distributions such as Ubuntu give their 64 bit distributions a polish over the 12 months to make they work just as well as their 32 bit version. We need officially supported 32 bit repositories for the 64 bit distributions, it may seem like a retrograde step but until Adobe and others sort out their compatibility with 64 bit a 64 bit desktop is always going to be the preserve of the geek.

[insane_alien]

64-bit wasn't ahead of its time. we have the technology to handle hundereds of bits in data buses and memory structures, Nvidias are running over 300-bit busses IIRC. the only thing holding us back is legacy and the lack of adoption from software developers (Microsoft, *cough*). though finally apple and MS are catching up all be it slowly. apple out performing MS and us linux/unix/bsd guys outperforming the lot with full 64-bit support for a while now.

since memory in systems, even domestic systems, is hitting and exceeding 4GB 64-bit becomes an attractive option though 32-bit can get a bit more life from PAE it will suffer performance hits.

64-bit has been around for a while though mainly in professional systems. theres even a bunch of 128-bit processors out there and we could easily churn out a 1024-bit system in a few years if we found an application for it.

64-bit is old tech. its that software thats behind the times.

[jiminycricket]

I used ubuntu 64bit for a while and it was slightly faster. Unfortunately though I use some propietory applications that only have 32 bit versions. I may try 64bit again soon when i have the effort and gnash can play youtube videos.

It can actually :) You just have to compile it from SVN. Same with swfdec.