Windows 8 - 128 bit architecture?

Alex_SE · **Posted:** October 9th, 2009, 5:01 pm

Microsoft leaks details of Windows 8 and Windows 9

Quote:

Microsoft is planning to make Windows 8 an 128-bit operating system, according to details leaked from the software giant's Research department.

The discovery came to light after Microsoft Research employee, Robert Morgan, carelessly left details of his work on the social-networking site, LinkedIn.

Research & Development projects including 128-bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan

The senior researcher's profile said he was: "Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects. Research & Development projects including 128-bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM."

Morgan's LinkedIn profile has now been pulled down, but a version remains in the Google search cache.

A move to 128-bit support would be a bold move for Microsoft. Many, including PC Pro's own Jon Honeyball, were urging Microsoft to make Windows 7 64-bit only, but the company continues to offer a 32-bit version of the forthcoming OS.

Microsoft has said very little publicly about Windows 8, although on a visit to the UK earlier this week, CEO Steve Ballmer denied rumours that Windows 7 would be the last major client OS the company produced. Ballmer admitted that planning was underway on Windows 8, although it's highly unlikely that the OS will arrive until 2012 at the earliest.

Morgan's talk of planning for Windows 9 supports Ballmer's claim that the company thinks there is plenty of life left in Windows yet.

Sauce:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/enterprise/ ... dows-8-and-windows-9

I don't trust these "leaks" very much but... We never know.
Finally we can have 16.8 million terabytes of RAM!

Adbot · **Posted:** October 9th, 2009, 5:01 pm

KefkaticFanatic · **Posted:** October 10th, 2009, 9:46 am

I saw this lawl. Have no doubt that we WILL actually utilise it in the future, but the next OS is not the time. Microsoft is making a big push to get 64bit majorly used however, as they are requiring computer manufacturers to have a 64bit compatible computer for it to have a Windows 7 ready sticker.

Pfkninenines · Global Moderator 12/4/08

Considering we're just getting to 64 bit as a normal choice, I don't expect 128 bit any time soon. The main purpose at this point would be to increase RAM capabilities and processing bandwidth, but we won't fill the 64-bit capabilities anytime soon. That is, unless you're going to have 16 billion GB of RAM in your next computer.

ChrisT · **Posted:** October 10th, 2009, 11:11 am

what exactly is the difference between 32, 64, and 128 bit?

is it like how many 0's and 1's can be processed at once? just weird since its never really came up till vista being 64 or 32 bit compared to xp 32 bit

KefkaticFanatic · **Posted:** October 10th, 2009, 11:32 am

Linky

Quote:

The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU), handles information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system.

Shane · **Posted:** October 10th, 2009, 11:37 am

Here's a bit of a guide on 64 vs. 32: http://informer.rsbandb.com/article/2009/06/2147/64vs32.htm

I'd be willing to wager that more address space won't be one of the features that sells 128 bit. My guess would be that its primary focus would be to enhance processing speed of large integers. The same happened with 64 bit, larger integers were able to be processed faster due to the larger registers.

The upper limit of 32 bits is 2³² - 1: 4,294,967,295
The upper limit of 64 bits is 2⁶⁴ - 1: 18,446,744,073,709,551,616
The upper limit of 128 bits is 2¹²⁸ - 1: 3.4028236692093846346337460743177e+38 :shock:

While no normal human being will ever need the capacity of 128 bits (I hope not at least) lots of intense scientific applications do. Now to the reason why this is important.

In older architectures large numbers like this had to be stored across multiple registers (a register is a hardware component on the CPU that is used for storing data and other things). Basically this means you take a 64 bit integer and chop the bits in half. Put the upper 32 bits in one register and the lower 32 bits in another register. This requires you to stitch them together when you want them to be accessed. The same process can be used for a larger 128 bit number, chopping it into 4 32 bit, bit blocks.

Finally the slowest option for storing large numbers is to either write them to memory in the same fashion or even worse write them to disk.

So this is why high end computational tasks will value 128 bits from a hardare angle. There are also likely to be other security features on the 128 bit CPUs that the OS will implement.

Adbot · **Posted:** October 10th, 2009, 11:37 am

KefkaticFanatic · **Posted:** October 11th, 2009, 9:20 am

Hey, a few years back using 1TB of data would be unfathomable. You never know what the future will bring

ChrisT · **Posted:** October 11th, 2009, 1:03 pm

ooo nice, and yea never know where technology will be 5 years down the road. sad i bought a 600 some gigabyte hardrive and then the next week they came out with terabyte drives that were very close to the same price i bought my 600