Datacenter update promises performance boost and new roads for software developer. Microsoft’s first operating system designed for the corporate data center has garnered sparse acceptance since its release last year, but the software is on the verge of a performance upgrade that experts say could put it on the road to corporate recognition. Read it at PCWorld.
Microsoft Faces 64-Bit Challenge
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Eugenia Loli
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to all your high-endian datacenter machines, MS will continue to have a difficult time
Last time microsft tried 64 bits, it was with alpha and NT. Anyone can see how successfull they where.
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http://islande.hirlimann.net
It was pretty successful actually. The fact that it might not sold a lot, was mostly because Alphas was not something you buy at Frys.
>>Alphas was not something you buy at Frys.
why does that matter?
you can’t buy Sun’s, or IBM mainframes, or the like at Fry’s…and it dosn’t look like you can buy Itanium’s there either.
this isn’t intended for end users it’s for high end data centers or stuff like that, not on your desktop to email, surf the web, and play games.
The real problem is that with 64 bit Windows all the traditional 32 bit applications don’t work. Only the look-and-feel is the same.
With linux is different because 64 bit linux will run almost all the programs used in 32 bit linux, only recompiled.
Of course the M$ vision is that 64 bit computers must be only servers but in the next year AMD will sell cheap 64 bit processors and we will can run 64 bit linux desktops. I can see my dear linux running on the next 64 bit AMD processor (in 64 bit mode) …
NT on Alpha was crap for two reasons:
1) you had to apply a firmware patch to make the machine work in 32bit compatibility mode, thus, as a result, you had a nice 64bit machine handicapped by a 32bit OS.
2) no native applications. There was a code-morphing like technology, however, it ran x86 on alpha really badly.
well last i checked there is a toolchain to build 64 bit windows programs in the platform sdk… so it wouldnt be that hard to ~gasp~ make NEW programs for it
altho admittedly it would help to have a fortune to spend on a 64 bit machine so you could actually ~test~ them
the whole run old programs thing is overrated… thats what emulation is for :oP
step one: compile bochs (or something similar)
step two : install 32 bit windows on disk image
step three: run old programs to your heart’s content
“no native applications. There was a code-morphing like technology, however, it ran x86 on alpha really badly.”
There were a few apps for NT on Alpha, you can find some here ftp://dutlbcz.lr.tudelft.nl/alphant/
Also there was a beta version of Windows2000 for alpha (http://www.alphant.com/)
If the reporte ports of NT to PowerPC are still around.
If they were targetting 32-bit PPC machines, then it would still be a simple matter to go to 64-bit machines, and IBM has those for anyone who wants to buy them, in addition to new designs(GPUL, other rumored POWER4 derivatives).
Do we not all know everything that Microsoft produces
is crap but ALWAYS successfull so will its 64-bits adventure
will become..Successfull not because its a good product but because its good marketing..even we speak about it!
“The more you know the more you know you do not know”
Bas
it seems it takes MS at least 3-4 tries to make something that doesn’t suck.