64bit to 128bit?

[mpavao81]

Ok this may be a dumb question, i know cpus have gone from 32bit to 64bit, But do you think they will go to 128bit in the foreseeable future? like 5 years or so. Just curious.

 

[jaguarskx]

Nope. Too soon.

 

[Andrius]

We needed around 20 years to get form the 64K RAM limit of a 16bit to the 4GB RAM limit of a 32bit architecture in an average desktop computer.

2^16 = 65,536 = 64KiB
2^32 = 4,294,967,296 = 4GiB
2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 = 4Gi*4GiB = 18EiB

I think its quite safe to say we are still good for at least 10-15 years with 64bit on the common desktop.

 

[Guest]

lol... really i doubt programs will require anywhere beyond 4 gbs for years... so yeah silly question

 

[allhands]

While 64 bit CPUs are abundunt and you can get 64 bit OSes 64 bit computing has not taken off. In fact it will probably be another 5 years before it catches on. As of right now I'm not sure if it's even worth using. From what I've seen it doesn't really give you an advantage.

 

[imrul]

128bit
2^128 =340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

 

[yamla]

lol... really i doubt programs will require anywhere beyond 4 gbs for years... so yeah silly question

You are kidding, right? Some software already needs more than 4 GB.

 

[wingless]

I can buy a 4GB DDR2-800 kit on Newegg.com for $70. My next system will have 8GB. I have programs now that are capable of using as much RAM as I can throw at it. If you run VMware then you probably know what I mean. With the advent of more multithreaded software programming I think we may see system memory requirements take a big leap. Also memory technologies are catching up to the need so its the perfect time for software to take that next step.

 

[MarkG]

There's really no benefit to 128-bit computing over 64-bit unless you're doing some weird scientific or engineering work that needs to process very large numbers rapidly. So I don't expect to see it for a very long time.

 

[MarkG]

From what I've seen it doesn't really give you an advantage.

Hardly surprising when most of those tests are FPU-limited or GPU-limited... that's kind of like complaining that the top speed of your car doesn't increase when you replace a 1.2 liter four-cylinder engine with a 12 liter V-8, but keep the same gearbox and the same rev limit.

 

[Slobogob]

It could happen that we see the first 128 bit cpu in a few years, but not because of memory address limitations.
The merging of GPU and CPU could lead to the introduction of 256 bit precision floating point units sooner than most anticipate though. While that is not true >64bit it is heading in the right direction.

 

[Andrius]

It could happen that we see the first 128 bit cpu in a few years, but not because of memory address limitations.
The merging of GPU and CPU could lead to the introduction of 256 bit precision floating point units sooner than most anticipate though. While that is not true >64bit it is heading in the right direction.

While it is usefull in scientific applications such hardware has no use on the common desktop (128bit)
Maybe a 256bit precission FPU would appear as a custom add in board like todays PPUs and GPUs.

For every day computer usage 32bit precission FPU is "good enough" and it offers a 7 decimal digit precission.
64bit offers 15 decimal digits and for let us say 4MPixel displays in 3D graphics that's already overkill.
That's why todays graphics cards use single precission FPU (32bits).
CAD is another story, but again I see custom add in boards for those applications (as today).

But that is just a FPU. There is even less use for 128bit integers.

 

[JonnyRock]

Ok this may be a dumb question, i know cpus have gone from 32bit to 64bit, But do you think they will go to 128bit in the foreseeable future? like 5 years or so. Just curious.

x86 needs to die and we need someone to give us a decent OS that will run on whatever replaces x86.

 

[JonnyRock]

errrrr forgot this....

Here are some interesting alternatives to x86


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7085019.stm


DNA computing ftw

 

[Slobogob]

Maybe a 256bit precission FPU would appear as a custom add in board like todays PPUs and GPUs.

Like Toshibas Spurs Engine, just with a wider bus. We'll probably see Intel doing someting like that with 64bit though.

 

[jimmysmitty]

x86 needs to die and we need someone to give us a decent OS that will run on whatever replaces x86.

You mean like Intels IA64 on Itanium? That should have replaced x86 but it had no 32bit support and we all know you need to transition. But maybe someday we will se a IA64 with x86 extensions instead.

Like Toshibas Spurs Engine, just with a wider bus. We'll probably see Intel doing someting like that with 64bit though.

Yea. I have heard a rumor from someone at IBM(I work next to them) that Intel and IBM are researching a 512bit CPU or something in a CPU. Would be interesting to see even a purly 512bit CPU and see what it can do huh?

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Ok this may be a dumb question, i know cpus have gone from 32bit to 64bit, But do you think they will go to 128bit in the foreseeable future? like 5 years or so. Just curious.

Nope. In fact, I wonder if we will have adopted 64-bit in 5 years. Right now there seems to be some major issues. I think we won't see wide adoption until mainstream machines start needing 4+ gigs of RAM.

I would guess that MS's next OS will be only 64-Bit (with 32-bit support). Then we'll see adoption.

 

[LukeBird]

I would guess that MS's next OS will be only 64-Bit (with 32-bit support). Then we'll see adoption.

I really, really hope they make it 64-bit only! At least then it won't be a RAM hungry 32-bit emulator!
I am very tempted to go to Vista, because at present I have 4096Mb of RAM installed in my system, but as well know, PAE will use whatever it needs for other peripherals, meaning I have 2.8Gb in Windows! I could cope with 3.3Gb, but 2.8 is just ****!

 

[Scotteq]

Yea. I have heard a rumor from someone at IBM(I work next to them) that Intel and IBM are researching a 512bit CPU or something in a CPU. Would be interesting to see even a purly 512bit CPU and see what it can do huh?

<giggles at the thought of the billions of posts crying that 64/128/512 bit addresses take up more space and How Dare You Use My Hard Drive and Memory when I want it sitting there doing nothing bloated pig stole my money and space why can't we just stay with XP>


Yeahhhhh....

 

[daft]

if im not mistaken.... i recall when the Barcelona came out there was an annoncement and AMD claimed that the Barcelona had a 128-bit FPU

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

I really, really hope they make it 64-bit only! At least then it won't be a RAM hungry 32-bit emulator!
I am very tempted to go to Vista, because at present I have 4096Mb of RAM installed in my system, but as well know, PAE will use whatever it needs for other peripherals, meaning I have 2.8Gb in Windows! I could cope with 3.3Gb, but 2.8 is just ****!

That might be a motherboard issue as well. Check to see how much RAM your BIOS thinks it has. My Asus A8n-SLI motherboard (S939) only sees about 2.8 GB of my 3 gigs of RAM. I was so frustrated when I upgraded. I'm glad I'm only wasting a few hundred megabytes and not more.

 

[LukeBird]

That might be a motherboard issue as well. Check to see how much RAM your BIOS thinks it has. My Asus A8n-SLI motherboard (S939) only sees about 2.8 GB of my 3 gigs of RAM. I was so frustrated when I upgraded. I'm glad I'm only wasting a few hundred megabytes and not more.

Don't worry, checked that.
It's an OS issue as the BIOS shows 4096mb as it should. Used to have 3.3Gb, but when I went SLi I lost another 768mb for PAE for the 2nd GTX. Makes it a real bastard as I lost a whole chunk more RAM!

 

[surrealdeal]

It's been done already. No one cared. No new horizons. No new worlds to conquer.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Don't worry, checked that.
It's an OS issue as the BIOS shows 4096mb as it should. Used to have 3.3Gb, but when I went SLi I lost another 768mb for PAE for the 2nd GTX. Makes it a real bastard as I lost a whole chunk more RAM!

I am jealous of your rig. Just one of your video cards would kick my video card's butt, but you have two...

 

[killerb255]

I really, really hope they make it 64-bit only! At least then it won't be a RAM hungry 32-bit emulator!
I am very tempted to go to Vista, because at present I have 4096Mb of RAM installed in my system, but as well know, PAE will use whatever it needs for other peripherals, meaning I have 2.8Gb in Windows! I could cope with 3.3Gb, but 2.8 is just ****!

I can't remember exactly where I heard this, but I heard that Windows Server 2008 will be the last 32-bit OS coming from Microsoft. Small Business Server 2008 will be 64-bit only (mainly because Exchange 2007 is 64-bit only).

Therefore, if the above is true, then Windows 7 (Vista's successor) will be 64-bit only.