Advantages of 64 – bit Computing and Operating Systems

64 bit operating systems are aimed at the next generation (which is here now) of Desktop Pc's and CAD Workstations.

64 bit technology is all about addressing vast amounts of physical memory (RAM), with 64 bits you can in theory address 16 Exabyte’s but it is unlikely that any application will ever be able to use that much RAM in the near future, and none of today’s hardware can even support anywhere close to that amount at present.

64-bit will allow 32-bit programmes to use the full 4GB of RAM where required and will allow some programmes to be recompiled/compiled into 64-bit applications thereby allowing them to use much more RAM giving much faster more stable applications (subject to hardware configurations of course).

So going back to our Autodesk Inventor example ( mentioned in 64 - bit computing - What is it & does it matter? ) the (32-bit) version of the software on a workstation with 6GB of RAM could then take advantage of 4GB of RAM allowing it to handle much larger/more complex data sets a lot faster.

That said professional and commercial software authors have been welcoming the coming of age of 64- bit computing for some time as the capabilities of their programs were being stifled by the lack of available memory address space.

Already 32 -bit software is becoming obselecent for the real power users, and 64 –bit versions of the software have already hit the market as many of the top software houses, who are eager to squeeze every last ounce of performance from modern desktop systems, as this increases the scope and performance of their software have already re-compiled their software.

In summary if you are a business owner or an IT support specialist, it is just not worth the risk of running modern commercial software on inappropriate hardware so do your business a favour and listen to your reseller advice. They will be giving more for your benefit than theirs.

Equally be aware that the current different versions of Windows Vista can address different levels of memory, so make sure you have the most suitable version of the operating system for your requirements.

Related Topics

64 - Bit Computing - What is it & Does it Matter? 

CAD Computers

What are the benefit of multi-core processors? (coming soon)

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