IDF Spring 05 After years of delays, Microsoft will deliver a pair of 64-bit operating systems within the next month. Honest.

Jim Allchin, Microsoft's SVP of platforms, promised to ship the Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems "in about a month." These operating systems - one for servers and one for workstations - will work with x86-64-bit chips from both AMD and Intel. They should help Microsoft catch up with Unix and Linux OS makers that already have 64-bit OSes available.

"It has been a long road coming, but we are going to be there," Allchin said, during a speech today here at the Intel Developer Forum.

Microsoft had once been expected to release the 64-bit server and workstation OSes at the end of 2003. It has repeatedly delayed the launch of the software over the last two years.

Redmond does have some experience in the 64-bit market. It makes a high-end 64-bit OS for Intel's Itanium processor. Microsoft, however, decided to kill off a version of Windows XP once meant for Itanic. A version of Windows for server clusters also will lack Itanium support.

"We are very, very committed to (Itanium)," Allchin said. ®

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