GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Microsoft Unveils New Windows XP For AMD's 64 Bit Chips

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a version of its Windows XP operating system for Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s new Athlon 64 processor and said the system would also work with a 64-bit desktop chip from Intel Corp. if the company develops one.

Chris Jones, corporate vice president for the Windows client division at Microsoft, said the system would be able to run on 64-bit chips from both AMD and Intel., on both server computers and desktops.

Intel executives have not publicly disclosed any product plans for a 64-bit PC chip, saying the mainstream desktop market is not ready yet for 64-bit computing, which processes data faster than current 32-bit chip architectures.

Analysts have speculated that Microsoft would choose to support AMD's 64-bit PC architecture since its chip is available first. The Athlon 64 will be able to run not only 64-bit applications but 32-bit programs as well.

But Jones said in an interview before AMD's Athlon 64 launch that it would not be difficult to fine-tune a version of Windows for Intel's architecture.

"Our operating system will run as long as (Intel) doesn't change the instruction set" from their existing 64-bit Itanium chip architecture, he said. "We will release versions of desktop operating systems for both Intel and AMD," assuming Intel eventually develops a 64-bit desktop processor.

Analyst Rob Enderle said Microsoft executives have said in the past that they will not write a new 64-bit desktop version of Windows specifically for Intel like it did for Athlon 64.

"Microsoft doesn't want to do two operating systems and if Intel wants Microsoft support they're going to have to comply with AMD specifications on 64-bit on the desktop," said Enderle, principal analyst at research firm Enderle Group.

"Microsoft said they won't do a recompile (of code) or a separate operating system for Intel; that Windows would have to run on both AMD and Intel" chips, he added.

Jones declined to elaborate on exactly how Microsoft would optimize Windows for an Intel 64-bit desktop processor because there is no product or even product plan yet.

Intel isn't eager to develop a 64-bit desktop processor that could cripple its 64-bit Itanium processor used in servers, Enderle said.

Jones said the new version of XP will be available in final release in the first half of next year. He said initially, 64-bit desktop computing was most likely to be taken up by gamers, video editors and engineers.

"We're seeing the leading-edge market hit barriers that make (the early adopters) want 64-bit now," said Jones. "The mainstream desktop market will take more time to migrate. It will happen, it's just a matter of when."

AMD said Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to ship Athlon 64-based systems in the fourth quarter of this year. Other prominent computer companies, including Fujitsu Ltd. and gaming machine maker Alienware Corp., said they would have Athlon 64 systems as well.