Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/18/intel_to_ship_64bit_pentium/
Intel to ship 64-bit Pentium ‘in time for Longhorn’
Mobiles, too
Posted in Channel, 18th February 2004 19:19 GMT
IDF Intel confirmed it will bring 64-bit technology to the desktop when Microsoft ships the next major version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn.
And it is likely to bring the recently announced AMD64-like "64-bit extensions" system to the mobile market in the same timeframe, company representatives said today.
Describing the shift from the server environment to the mainstream client as a "big jump", Bill Siu, general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group, admitted that the process of recompiling device drivers and the like for a 64-bit desktop PC would take "some time to complete".
He said Intel expects to see a Windows OS delivering "comprehensive 64-bit support in the Longhorn timeframe".
That puts the arrival of 64-bit addressing in the Pentium 4 sometime around 2006 - and possibly even as late as 2008 [1], if you believe the prognostications of analysts like Gartner.
Whenever Longhorn ships, Intel will be ready, following its previously announced decision to support 64-bit on the desktop "when there is software from an application and operating system standpoint", as President and COO Paul Otellini put it [2] not so long ago.
Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, made much the same comment when asked at what point we will see Intel's 64-bit extensions brought into a mobile context. ®