Microsoft is expected to announce tomorrow that Windows XP Professional 64-bit and Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 have been released to manufacturing to be produced for general release next month WinBeta has learnt.
Build 1830 has been deemed worthy of release after 18 long months of beta testing of a product that many companies showed inital reluctance to install after Microsoft let slip that Service Pack 1 was already in the works at the release of Windows Server 2003 itself.
The service pack offers a compilation of updates as well as new security enhancements and originally was due in the first half of 2004.
The new Windows editions are designed to take advantage of 64-bit extensions to the standard x86 instruction set in processors from both Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Intel Corp. 64-bit systems offer users greater computing power as systems can process more data per clock cycle and have greater access to memory.
One key benefit of 64-bit extension technology is that applications written for 32-bit computers will run well on the processors. The 64-bit extensions are currently supported in AMD's Athlon64 and Opteron processors, as well as Intel's Xeon processor, code-named Nocona, released late last month.
Microsoft has high expectations of 64-bit technology. In May of 2004, Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates predicted at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) that by the end of 2005 all the processors sold by AMD and the majority of processors sold by Intel will support 64-bit computing.
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Source:
Winbeta
Note: This article were posted by winbeta on the 29th of march.
