Brother, can you spare 64 bits?

April 25, 2005

It's officially 64-Bit Week in PC Land. Microsoft just announced the first versions of Windows designed to run on 64-bit microprocessors. Later this week, Apple starts shipping the latest, "Tiger" version of its OS X, which incorporates native 64-bit support. In sheer computing terms, 64-bit processors mark a big jump over the previous 32-bit standard. They process much fatter chunks of data, and they enable applications to draw on larger banks of RAM memory.

So will 64-bit PCs change the world? Mark Stahlman certainly thinks so. And it seems clear that, eventually, the more powerful PCs will shake things up. Not least, they'll bring the cost of computing down even lower.

Some business PC users will benefit directly - those that, for instance, routinely crunch massive amounts of data or do a lot of 3-D modeling. But the vast majority of office workers won't see any difference. They use only a small fraction of the power inside their current machines. For them, upgrading to a 64-bit machine will be like using a sledgehammer to drive finishing nails. Indeed, as ZDNet UK notes, "the stuff that holds us back lives at the other end of the network, where wider data paths and bigger memory spaces have a much more compelling tale to tell."

It's at home that I think the real impact of 64-bit microprocessors will in time be felt. That's where the heavy-duty processing of audio and video is becoming commonplace. The ability to cram even more computing power into small devices in consumers' hands - combined with ever greater network capacity - seems certain to hasten the convergence of the computing, media and consumer electronics industries, with far-reaching consequences.

Posted by nick at April 25, 2005 12:13 PM

Advertisement: Now available: Nicholas Carr's new book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Order now from Amazon.