Hello everyone!First of all - I know VERY little about computers.Now, would someone be kind enough to explain to me in layman's language, what all this 64 bit stuff is about?I'm vaguely aware that MS will be bringing out a 64 bit OS. But what does this mean with regard to hardware?Simple answers please - it'll help me (and those too afraid to ask) understand.Much appreciated!http://online.vatsimindicators.net/916312/3.png

Here is a little info from Microsoft:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/e...ation/top5.mspx

OK, thanks, so what's this Longhorn thingy then?http://online.vatsimindicators.net/916312/3.png

Longhorn is the next big step after windows XP. However it has gotten some serious delays so I think Microsoft is very happy to have the X64 as the middle step :).But Longhorn is the next big step like windows 2000 was over windows 98 and how windows 95 was over windows 3.11. There isn

>Hello everyone!>>First of all - I know VERY little about computers.>>Now, would someone be kind enough to explain to me in layman's>language, what all this 64 bit stuff is about?>>I'm vaguely aware that MS will be bringing out a 64 bit OS. >But what does this mean with regard to hardware?>>Simple answers please - it'll help me (and those too afraid to>ask) understand.>>Much appreciated!>>http://online.vatsimindicators.net/916312/3.pngI'll make a feeble attempt at an analogy. If one thinks of "bits" (as in 32bit, 64bit, etc) as lanes in a highway it might give a more clear concept of what is happening.When DOS ran in 8 bit mode it would be analagous to the "data" the computer chip processes to be traveling down a single lane road. It was congested, not much room to pass or for error. Then they decided that they needed more room as chips got faster so they "widened" the highway to 2 lanes. That allowed more traffic, both ways.That wasn't sufficient to keep up with technology advances in either hardware or software so they widened the highway still further to 32 bits and until recently there was not sufficient customer pressure to invest further widening.Now 64 bit computing is in the present (AMD) and future (Intel and MS). That will double the width of the highway for the transmission of "data" even more.Of course there have also been improvements in the ability to direct "traffic" into high speed lanes with things called "cache" and "hyper-threading", etc.The concept of the road and its ability to carry traffic can be visualized somewhat more realistically by comparing the 8bit chip to a half-inch pipe, a 16bit chip to a one inch pipe, 32bit becomes a two inch pipe and 64bit is a four inch pipe. Imagine how much more "flow" is in the four inch pipe over the two inch. That's how much more information can be traveling on the 64bit highway.... and that's my 2 cents!

>I'll make a feeble attempt at an analogy. If one thinks of>"bits" (as in 32bit, 64bit, etc) as lanes in a highway it>might give a more clear concept of what is happening.>>When DOS ran in 8 bit mode it would be analagous to the "data">the computer chip processes to be traveling down a single lane>road. It was congested, not much room to pass or for error.>Then they decided that they needed more room as chips got>faster so they "widened" the highway to 2 lanes. That allowed>more traffic, both ways.>>That wasn't sufficient to keep up with technology advances in>either hardware or software so they widened the highway still>further to 32 bits and until recently there was not sufficient>customer pressure to invest further widening.>>Now 64 bit computing is in the present (AMD) and future (Intel>and MS). That will double the width of the highway for the>transmission of "data" even more.>>Of course there have also been improvements in the ability to>direct "traffic" into high speed lanes with things called>"cache" and "hyper-threading", etc.>>The concept of the road and its ability to carry traffic can>be visualized somewhat more realistically by comparing the>8bit chip to a half-inch pipe, a 16bit chip to a one inch>pipe, 32bit becomes a two inch pipe and 64bit is a four inch>pipe. Imagine how much more "flow" is in the four inch pipe>over the two inch. That's how much more information can be>traveling on the 64bit highway.>>... and that's my 2 cents!That seems clear enough for me. Thanks for that :-)http://online.vatsimindicators.net/916312/3.png

If history repeats itself, it will be quite a while before 64-bit operating systems and applications become common. The first widely available 32-bit processor was the Intel 386, which appeared in the mid-1980's as I recall. However, a mainstream 32-bit operating system did not appear until Windows 95, almost 10 years later.

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