Digital Divide Of 32 Bit And 64 Bit
There are lot of products from hardware and software speaking about 32 and 64 bit.
The article is an effort to understand the differences for common user.
Your hardware and software both can be 32 bit OR 64 bit.
If your hardware i.e. processor and other peripherals support 64 bit, then you can run 64 bit supported software on it provide you have 64 bit Operating System such as Windows Vista 64 Bit.
1.Software:-
32 bit OS
Features of 32 bit OS: -
Good for systems running 32 bit applications and having data sets smaller than 2GB.
Supports - 4GB System Memory
2 GB Dedicated memory / process
eg. Windows Vista, Windows Server
64 bit OS
What do you mean by 64 bit OS?
More than 4GB Dedicated Memory/process can be supported
64 bit of data can be moved per clock cycle.
Features of 64 bit OS: -
- ASLR(Address Space Layout Randomizer) – It ensures system files load at Random memory offsets (1 to 256) on each boot, instead of same offset memory location.
- This is the feature provided first time in Windows stable to stop remote attacks.
DEP(Data Execution Protection)- Hardware backed support to prevent buffer overflows. It requires all drivers must be digitally signed by developers.
Issues in 64 bit OS:-
- 32 bit app can run on 64 bit OS, as 16 bit app can run on 32 bit OS
- All your hardware drivers MUST have x64 support Otherwise it’s a nightmare to support 64 bit OS.
- More secure but less compatible with hardware
The available 64 bit OS from Windows stable are
OS Processor
Windows XP - will not run on AMD 64 bit
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2003 - different version available for Intel & AMD
Beneficial for
-Digital Content
-CAD/CAM
-Financial Data Mining
64Bit Promoting Softwares:
- It is easier for server side hardware to provide full x64 bit support to all hardware devices.So there will be more software providing support to x64 bit in this area.
Eg. MS Server exchange2007 comes only in 64 bit version.
2. Hardware
32 bit processor
-Process 32 binary instruction/ clock cycle
-It can address upto 4GB RAM
64 bit processor
There are differences the way in which 64 bit processors are implemented.
-It can address 16 exabytes(16,000,000) of RAM theorotically.
But most manufacturers provide support between 8GB and 256 TB
-AMD provides extension to x86 platform. You can natively run both 32 and 64 bit code
-Intel provides all new Itanium 64 bit processor. Itanium is intended for use as a server. If 32 bit application are running in emulator on 64 bit processor, they will run too slowly.
-Intel also provides 32 bit compatible compatible EM64T..