2011 32 bit systems becomes junkies...

[lisati]

As I stated before its not about how the program was written but due to the fact that 64-bit pointers take twice as much memory, and operands take twice as much time. So unless the program takes advantage of the bigger ram available to 64-bit systems there is no advantage.

Agreed: the 64-bit pointers take twice the amount of memory, and there's a corresponding overhead with (other) operands.

Believe it or not, sometimes I miss programming for MS-DOS and putting in a small effort to make sure the program won't do nasty things on a machine that's configured slightly differently to mine.

[bruno9779]

32 bit systems have a sell by date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

In year 2038 all 32bit will be useless, so i guess that starting to replace everything a while before is a good idea, but 27 years early??

[hessiess]

Adding more and more extensions to the already very old and bloated x86 architecture isn't going to help. Getting away from the Outdated `IBM PC compatible' hardware would be a massive step in the right direction, it still uses a 16 bit BIOS for goodness sake.

[Exodist]

You have to remember that a lot of kernel devs work for the cpu manufacturers, so I'm sure if they were to manufacture 128-bit cpu's, Linux will support them, probably before Microsoft even creates a running version of Windows.

+1


Also to piggy back on th is. If we was to jump into the 128bit bandwagon, we can always include existing 64bit library files for a compatibility layer (I.e; for Flash Plugin) until 128bit versions are released.

[el mariachi]

Adding more and more extensions to the already very old and bloated x86 architecture isn't going to help. Getting away from the Outdated `IBM PC compatible' hardware would be a massive step in the right direction, it still uses a 16 bit BIOS for goodness sake.

yeah x86 has been around for a very long time... but I guess it's a big step to come up with a new arch and mass market it without some kind of retro-compat (hey look at the windows-to-linux example..)

it would be an important step though. As for 128-bit... why do we need 1gaziolionM of ram? I have 3Gb and I never use more than 800mb (and that's when I watch HD movies or play nexuiz)

[Exodist]

yeah x86 has been around for a very long time... but I guess it's a big step to come up with a new arch and mass market it without some kind of retro-compat (hey look at the windows-to-linux example..)

it would be an important step though. As for 128-bit... why do we need 1gaziolionM of ram? I have 3Gb and I never use more than 800mb (and that's when I watch HD movies or play nexuiz)

you actualy use a lot more for the OS not just your base programs. Just type "free" on the CL. But yea I agree 3 or 4GB is enough at the moment tho.

[3rdalbum]

The first anyone has heard of 128-bit x86 CPUs was a week ago when Microsoft started saying something about making Windows 8 for "IA-128".

I'm sure we would have heard about AMD and Intel's plans in this area earlier, if there were actually any plans afoot.

If 128-bit x86 CPUs (or non-x86-compatible, considering that IA-64 is not x86-compatible) come out, Windows will not be the first operating system to support them. I'm sure NetBSD or Linux will support it earlier. And all our software is only a recompile away from being 128-bit compatible too!

[pythonscript]

Plus, many game systems (like the Playstation 3) advertise that they use 128 bit systems, where in reality, they use 64-bit processors to work with 128-bit integers, which is a different system entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if this practice continues. For the 2038 problem, yes, that definitely makes a difference in the length of support for 32-bit systems, but even if it becomes a problem by 2018, that seems like a reasonable date to lose support for 32-bit systems. 9 years ago, 16-bit systems were still relatively common (at least my family had one at home that was becoming deprecated rapidly).

[coldReactive]

Plus, many game systems (like the Playstation 3) advertise that they use 128 bit systems, where in reality, they use 64-bit processors to work with 128-bit integers, which is a different system entirely.

Isn't... the PS3 PowerPC arch though?

[el mariachi]

yes