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October 31, 2008
The Bumpy Road to 64-Bit Computing
Dear Larry,
I had you come over recently to help me install my new
computer. You told me I should consider returning it because I’d probably regret
my purchase. Would you explain that again?
R. L.
Dear R. L.,
You purchased a 64-bit computer instead of a traditional
32-bit PC. Let me explain what I mean by that and why it was a poor decision in
your case.
In the early days of computing (back in the late 70s), the
Central Processing Unit—the CPU brain of the computer—was able to process 8 bits
of information at a time. (For those of you who remember that computers operate
in a binary world, 8 bits represents 8 binary digits, each of which has a value
of 0 or 1.)
Soon thereafter, computers quickly migrated to 16-bit
processors and then again to 32-bit processors in the mid 80s. We’ve primarily
been 32-bit computer users since then.
Every time the number of bits doubled in size, the CPU could
process twice as much information at once and therefore work significantly
faster. Furthermore, a chunk of 32-bits means that today’s computers can manage
memory that maxes out at 2 raised to the 32nd power; that’s 4 gigabytes (GB) of
memory.
With the advent of 64-bit computers, we’re once again talking
about a huge jump in computing power as well as a leap to a theoretical memory
limit of 16 exabytes (roughly the same as 17 billion gigabytes). In reality,
however, the operating system will dictate the total amount of memory that can
be used: the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium currently supports 16
GB total while fancier versions of Vista limit you to 128 GB. Of course, given
the way we currently use computers, these numbers remain extraordinarily
large—astronomical, in fact—in the same way a 4 GB limit would have sounded to
me back in the 80s.
Given all this amazing ability and speed, and in light of the
fact that 64-bit processing is definitely the wave of the foreseeable future,
why wouldn’t you want to upgrade to a 64-bit computer right away? Well, as
usual, the problem is software. Simply stated, there are far more 32-bit
programs around today than 64-bit. Yes, you can run many 32-bit programs on a
64-bit computer, but you’d be doing so in “compatibility” mode, whereby the
programs would run slower and still not have access to the additional power and
memory offered by the 64-bit architecture. One of the most popular programs
around today, Microsoft Office, still does not come in a 64-bit edition.
So the bottom line is this: Would you buy a brand new,
energy-efficient car today that runs on a special form of spinach if there were
only a dozen spinach refueling stations in the country?
Wait a few years until 64-bit computing breaks out of the
specialty aisle and enters the mainstream.
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
