Microsoft has been thinking about Windows 8 for a while now even through the production of Windows 7. Some information has been gathered by our friends over at Ars, and all of this said information points to possible 128-bit versions of Windows 8 and definite 128-bit versions of Windows 9. Update: Other technophiles better-versed than I in this whole 64/128-bit business pointed out that it must be for the filesystem (such as ZFS described in this article) rather than the processor and memory scheme.
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Member since:2005-07-06
The reference to IA-128 in the article is probably bogus (written by an incompetent journalist) and such an architecture doesn't exist. But seeing that several references in the lower part talk about files and file systems, I guess that windows will switch the file system to support 128bits.
For external storage it might be possible that we see storage arrays which such gigantic spaces in the next 10 or 20 years. SUNs ZFS supports 128bit for a few years now, so I assume microsoft doesn't want to lack in that area...
Member since:2008-06-24
I'm in agreement on this. I also believe the 128-bit reference was for the file system, not the processor.
Most desktops today don't even cap out the 4 GB limit of 32-bit processors and no server or desktop on the planet comes anywhere close to maxing out a 64-bit memory space. As was said, even with 48 address pins that is 281,474,976,710,656 bytes of addressable memory (281 TB, or 281,000 GB). That's a lot of memory, even for data miners.
Member since:2006-01-01
You are mistaken and the 'update' to this posting is also mistaken.
The original linkedin job description of Robert Morgan clearly stated that he is working on ...
'Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan'
... this clearly implies a 128 bit CPU architecture. The addition of 128 bit instructions - probably in the Kittson timeframe - logically progress the architecture and is by no means esoteric (the Dreamcast, back in the day, had a 128 bit FPU).
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Is this an april fools joke in october?
32bit and 64bit so far measured the size of the address space = the size of the main memory which can be addressed by applications.
64bit already allows for 16 exabytes of memory! In fact current cpus only have 48 wires for addresses as that is really enough for everything possible today.
So 128bit for the next windows version doesn't make any sense to me...