64-Bit Windows Goes Mainstream at WinHEC 2005

by Alex Woodie

As expected, Microsoft today announced the immediate availability of new 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2005 here today in Seattle, Washington, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates said the availability of Windows Server 2003 X64 Editions and Windows XP Profession X64 Edition will have a far-reaching impact on both the desktop and the server.

Microsoft is now selling three versions of Windows Server 2003 that run on X64 processors from Intel and AMD, including Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions. Pricing for the X64 versions are identical to their 32-bit counterparts, Microsoft says. Customers with volume licensing contracts can upgrade to X64 Windows via their media kits, whereas customers who acquired their Windows license from an OEM system vendor between March 31, 2003 and June 30, 2005 can upgrade to 64 bits through the Technology Advancement Program. These customers should ask their OEM for a copy of the new X64 version of Windows; click here for more information on the Technology Advancement Program.

Redmond has really been churning out the code lately. The general availability of the X64 versions of Windows Server 2003 comes just a month after the delivery of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. Microsoft is showing no signs of slowing down, either. At WinHEC, Microsoft said that next month it will deliver the first public beta of Windows Server 2003 R2.

Longhorn also got some play on the opening day of WinHEC. Following a demo of some keen new interface features in the oft-delayed new version of Windows (such as transparent Windows, and better opening and closing of Windows), Gates mused, "Whenever I see those demos, I think, it would be good to get Longhorn done."

64-Bit Computing

But today was all about X64 computing. Gates said several types of workloads will see big benefit from being re-developed for 64-bit processors, including any application written on top of a database (which includes all the big ERP and business applications), Active Directory, Web hosting, and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. "We're going to see this [grow] quite rapidly, particularly on the server," Gates said.

Since database applications are expected to benefit the most from X64, Francois Ajenstat, a product manager with the Windows group, provided a demonstration of how X64 technology will benefit database-driven applications. "Customers perceive SQL Server as hitting the ceiling" with 32-bit processors, he says. And if his demo is any indication, the customers are right.

The demonstration pitted two identically outfitted four-way servers equipped with 32 GB of memory--one of them running a 32-bit version of SQL Server and the other a 64-bit version of SQL Server--to see how they fared. The workload tested was an extract, transform, and load (ETL) of 5 million data records, and it showed that the 32-bit system maxed out the processors, whereas the better utilization of memory in the 64--bit system kept processor utilization lower by making better use of lookup tables. The result was the 64-bit system was able to do five times as much work as the 32-bit system, advantages which Microsoft hopes to turn into scalability, reliability, and security benefits.

For customers who can't wait for the 64-bit enabled SQL Server 2005 (codenamed "Yukon") to ship later this year (unless there's another delay, of course), Microsoft reiterated that there will be a version of SQL Server 2000 that will be able to run on the new X64 Windows OS and 64-bit hardware. This version, which is called SQL Server Service Pack 4, is currently still in beta, however. For more info on SQL Server 2000 SP4, visit Knowledge Base article 290211.

On the desktop side, gaming, CAD/CAM, and digital entertainment workloads will be among the applications benefiting the most from 64-bit computing, Gates said. Microsoft's Jay Kenny, a product manager in the Windows group, provided a demonstration of how 64-bit computing will help 3D imaging. Currently, it takes about three days of processing to render a 12-second animated scene using a program like Newtek LightWave 3D. With X64, that same 12-second animation can be rendered overnight, Kenny said. What's more, X64 will provide artists with much more detail. In the demo, only 11 winged underwater creatures were able to be rendered for the scene by current 32-bit systems. With X64, the artist could fit 141 creatures into the scene, in addition to better atmospheric details--and still render the image faster. The advantage (in speed and number of underwater creatures) to Kenny was clear: "The limits of 32-bit are forcing artists to make compromises."

Apps and Drivers

Applications must be re-developed and recompiled to fully take advantage of 64-bit processors, although some 32-bit applications can run faster (about 10 to 15 percent faster) on the new X64 bit processors from Intel and AMD than on 32-bit processors, according to Microsoft, because chunks of the operating systems have that have been recoded help all applications perform better.

Today, there are relatively few software applications that will take full advantage of the new X64 processors from Intel and AMD. Microsoft provided a list of 18 ISVs currently developing applications to run on the X64 versions of Windows and the X64 processors, including Adobe, BMC Software, Computer Associates, Citrix, Ericom Software, McAfee, Oracle, Symantec, and Veritas.

Getting hardware and peripheral vendors to write 64-bit device drivers for the new platforms is another big focus area for Microsoft. Like any big migration, it's going to take time, and it will be nearly impossible to avoid at least some incompatibilities and public failures, no matter how badly Microsoft wants it to go smoothly.

And Microsoft does want it to go smoothly. In fact, during his keynote, Gates predicted that the migration to 64-bit Windows that began today will go down in the history books for its success. "This is going to be among the simplest there have been," Gates said.

However, already the Windows Server 2003 X64 Editions haven't lived up to what is still perhaps the greatest and smoothest migration to 64-bit processors in the history of IT--the 1995 migration of IBM's AS/400 from 48-bit CISC processors to 64-bit RISC processors. Thanks to the high level of virtualization and a technology-independent interface built into the lower levels of the OS/400 operating system, IBM could automate the process of moving applications from 48-bit to 64-bit mode under the covers. What AS/400 customers didn't know is that their RPG and COBOL applications compiled to an intermediate level on their servers and then were compiled on the fly down to the raw iron each time they ran for the first time on new iron; as they upgraded servers, the applications automatically compiled that intermediate code down to the new hardware, even if it was radically different iron--and without needing a formal recompile from the source code. This is how Java precompilers work today to create Java bytecodes. This is a very old idea, not a new one. Such a relatively painless upgrade to a new bit-ness may never be repeated. And, to be fair, even that one didn't go perfectly. Some AS/400 customers deleted the intermediate compiled files off their machines without knowing what they were. And when they did, their code could not be recompiled on the new RISC iron.