I curious as to what 64-bit processing might mean in the flight sim world.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...e/microsoft_x64The part that got my attention the most was this:"4 GB is the upper limit for 32-bit systems. By comparison, the 64-bit desktop OS will initially support 128 gigabytes of RAM."I wanted to bring this up here since it is actively viewed by some of the most knowledgable software designers in the flightsim world.My initial reaction is that 64-bit processing will bring revolutionary changes in the realism possible in flight simulation software.Am I being overly optimistic?

I forgot to sign.Regards,Bob Quick

Hi Bob:I think you are right. The matter is how do we get the $$$$, or convince our wives (much harder!) to drain our savings to replace our current "cockpit" to keep up with more perfect simulated worlds.Carlos

Don't forget that the hardware isn't yet available in bulk, certainly not for workstations!Intel is set to ship their first dualcore 64 bit CPUs pretty soon, AMD has some single core models already, but that's it.And the rest of the hardware (motherboards, etc.) still aren't capable of fully utilising the potential.Busses are geared towards 32 bit processing power, motherboards can't accept more RAM than a 32 bit CPU can address, etc.

Carlos,Who is the guy on the photograph in your signature? Is it you??? Because if this is so there is uncannny resemblence between you and Mr.Vin Scimone of PMDG. It is so close I would think it is the same person.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

>>"4 GB is the upper limit for 32-bit systems. By comparison,>the 64-bit desktop OS will initially support 128 gigabytes of>RAM."I don't see revolution in 64-bit in terms of how much memory you can put in your PC but rather in the speed of the computing itself. Lets face it even 4 GB will be a LOT of memory for flight simulation for years to come. Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

More RAM can come in incredibly handy for photoscenery. At current the main problem with that is loading times, if you can keep it in RAM instead of having to page it to harddisk you might just be able to have FS keep up displaying it when flying something faster than a hangglider :)

I personally don't think photoscenery represents the future of FS scenery. It is always going to be expensive, hard to get and limited in size. In my opinion something like Rhode Island by FlightScenery (or its variant) represents the future of scenery technology.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

Perhaps the next version of Flight Simulator will have 3 versions. Flight Simulator 2006 - Standard EditionFlight Simulator 2006 - Professional EditionFlight Simulator 2006 - 64-bit EditionGiving developers like PMDG and others a platform to develop on.Wishful thinking anyway.

Actually, you have that a bit backwards. The hardware IS available in bulk but there is no software for it yet.AMD has various iterations of its 64bit processor and has had them since early 2004. I've had both the AMD64 FX-53 and now the FX-55 but I've got no 64-bit OS or apps. And at the end of the day, the only application I care about in 64bit glory is FS200x. Running my wordprocessor at blazing speed is really not at the top of my list.Likewise, my Asus MoBo is built with 64-bit architecture in mind and I would have no trouble filling it up with perverse amounts of RAM. The bus architecture is geared to support 64-bits which is why it scores higher than the fastest Intel chip EVEN with Intel's Hyperthreading getting beaten by the AMD hypertransport bus. With the dual cores, things will get more interesting but make no mistake that the current 64bit AMD chips are more than capable of taking advantage of every single 64-bit OS enhancement.With that said, what that means is that the realm of Pixar animation type graphics will soon be possible (Ice Age, Finding Nemo, etc.). Imagine a totally dyanmic photreal sky, in a cockpit that renders every single component in fluid motion, speaking to ATC in natural voice and ATC responding and LEARNING from its environment. As far as photorealism goes, we've already got that and it is more dependant on hard drive bus speed (SATA 10,000 RPM Raptors in Raid 0 takes care of that) than anything else.At the end of the day, a new dawn of hyperrealism awaits the PMDG developers when they are no longer worried about polygon counts or the toll system rendering will take. Me thinks that 5 years from now, if MSFS is still around, comparing FS12 to FS9 will be like comparing FS9 to FS4!!!Stay tuned.Regards,Mike T.

P4 EM64T 64 bit processor for two PC;s as well as my AMD 64. Tons of hardware for the 64 bit applications......when they come.

I don't know. It will likely never span the globe, but the demand from customers is there so I do think the coverage will expand.Whether that's a longterm development or not remains to be seen of course.

Mmmm... three versions of next FS release... it seems to be more a hope than a real information.Andreahttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

I love my system **smiles**All I care about now is adding the goflight software to it -- unless I win the lottery and go for project magenta.