64-Bit Computing Options on the Rise?

Enterprises could see their options for 64-bit computing on the x86 architecture grow during the year.

In an interview with a financial analyst on Wednesday, Paul Otellini, president and chief operating officer at Intel Corp., said the chip-making giant probably will offer 64-bit extensions in its 32-bit processors—such as Xeon and Pentium—once operating systems and applications are tuned to such extensions.

That statement came a day after Hewlett-Packard Co. officials, responding to reports that they will soon offer Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s Opteron chip in some of its ProLiant servers, said in a statement that while they remain committed to Xeon and Intel’s 64-bit Itanium processor, they are keeping their options open.

That and other “64-bit chatter” convinced Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight64, in Saratoga, Calif., to issue an e-mail notice today saying that he expects one or more major announcements from chip makers or systems manufacturers within the next 45 days revolving around new 64-bit computing capabilities.

Though he said in his e-mail notice that he was unsure what exactly the announcements will be, Brookwood said he expects them to open up the options for 64-bit computing and lead the way to two-processor 64-bit systems from tier-one OEMs.

In an interview, Brookwood said the anticipated announcement next month by Sun Microsystems Inc. of low-end Opteron-based servers and the expectation of a some sort of 64-bit x86 demonstration by Intel at next month’s Intel Developer Forum also are feeding into the intensifying talk surrouding 64-bit computing. Sun announced an alliance with AMD in November in which the Santa Clara, Calif., systems maker will use Opterons in servers. IBM also has released an Opteron-based server, the e325.

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