Efter flere års ventetid er den her endelig!
Windows x64 Edition er netop blevet lanceret i 2 udgaver på microsofts hjemmeside.
Den kommer først og fremmest i en professional-udgave til desktop-folket og derudover i en server-udgave til de nye Xeon og Opteron-processorer.
Der er mulighed for at hente en trial-udgave på deres hjemmeside.
System-kravende er følgende:
Supported processors: AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support, Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support
256 MB RAM
1.5 GB available hard-disk space
Super VGA (800x600) or higher resolution video card
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Selv nævner Microsoft følgende fem grunde til at opgraderer:
High performance platform for the next generation of applications
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is a rich platform that enables the next generation of high-performance computing. 64-bit native applications can deliver more data per clock cycle, making them run faster and more efficiently.
Large memory support
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition supports up to 128 gigabytes (GB) of RAM and 16 terabytes of virtual memory, enabling applications to run faster when working with large data sets. Applications can preload substantially more data into virtual memory, allowing rapid access by the 64-bit processor.
Flexibility Flexibility
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition provides a rich platform to integrate 64-bit applications and existing 32-bit applications using the Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) x86 emulation layer, providing customers with the ability to move to 64-bit computing without having to sacrifice their existing investment in 32-bit software and Windows expertise.
Multiprocessing and multicore
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is designed to support up to two single or multicore x64 processors for maximum performance and scalability.
Same programming model
Developers with 32-bit skills will be comfortable and quickly productive in the 64-bit Windows environment, finding it virtually identical to the development environment for 32-bit Windows.
Vi ved at der er rigtig mange hardware-producenter der ikke har frigivet drivere endnu, men det er næsten helt sikkert at vi inden for det næste stykke tid vil se mange nye drivere til WindowsXP x64 Edition.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/64bit/x64/overview.mspx