Ray
No company is going to speculate on such an iffy situation. MS will do a truly minimal development to start with and will go on to a full-blown 64 bit solution only when it deems a return possible on the massive investment. MS and risk-taking are contradictory terms.
I don't believe you will be wowed: the MS development is based on W2k, NOT XP, and, as I say, it will be minimal. I have not heard of their developing any 64 bit apps, such as Office, either (not that Office would benefit from it: you won't be able to type any faster, just because you have a 64 bit OS).
And you may be right, AMD may not survive, but I'm sure they have contingency plans available to minimise the risk if 64 bit does go pear-shaped.
Finally, just ask yourself: if 64 bit were that attractive for mainstream PCs, why do you think Intel are not jumping on the bandwagon? The last I heard is that they have no plans to go that way before 2010 (other than for servers). It is not that they do not have the technology. If they see the A64 taking off, I'm sure the 'Hexium' could be launched within 2 or 3 months, probably already ready. Hardware is so much easier to design than OSs.
No company is going to speculate on such an iffy situation. MS will do a truly minimal development to start with and will go on to a full-blown 64 bit solution only when it deems a return possible on the massive investment. MS and risk-taking are contradictory terms.
I don't believe you will be wowed: the MS development is based on W2k, NOT XP, and, as I say, it will be minimal. I have not heard of their developing any 64 bit apps, such as Office, either (not that Office would benefit from it: you won't be able to type any faster, just because you have a 64 bit OS).
And you may be right, AMD may not survive, but I'm sure they have contingency plans available to minimise the risk if 64 bit does go pear-shaped.
Finally, just ask yourself: if 64 bit were that attractive for mainstream PCs, why do you think Intel are not jumping on the bandwagon? The last I heard is that they have no plans to go that way before 2010 (other than for servers). It is not that they do not have the technology. If they see the A64 taking off, I'm sure the 'Hexium' could be launched within 2 or 3 months, probably already ready. Hardware is so much easier to design than OSs.
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