Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gave a demo of its forthcoming 64-bit Opteron
server processor and a prototype 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows on a server
at Comdex.
Servers using 64-bit processors and operating systems can handle computing
tasks that require more memory than the 2 GB limit of current 32-bit processors.
Microsoft has already released a 64-bit version of Windows designed
specifically for Intel’s 64-bit Itanium server processor, and is likely to
make an AMD version available when the Opteron makes its debut in the first half
of next year.
Both these companies are competing against existing 64-bit RISC chips from
Sun Microsystems, IBM, and others. RISC systems are powerful and
well-established but relatively expensive, and AMD wants to convince users to
adopt its low-cost technologies.
A benefit of AMD’s Opteron technology is that it allows companies to keep
their existing 32-bit applications on the platform, gradually migrating toward
64 bits as they need more performance or develop new applications. The Itanium
processor uses a different instruction set than the x86 instruction set used by
other desktop and server processors from Intel and AMD.