Intel Explores Transition to 64-Bit Mode-Only x86S Architecture

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Legacy pruning of the architecture is outlined in a new Intel whitepaper.

Intel x86S proposal
(Image credit: Intel)
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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

72 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Agree with this. Hope it happens. AMD
    Should also
    Reply
  • So as per the technical theory, a direct 64-bit reset state will now eliminate several stages of trampoline code to enter 64-bit operation, since booting CPUs (SIPI) starts in real-address mode today and needs a 64-bit replacement.

    Intel also says that in this proposed architecture, it is possible to switch to 5-level paging without leaving a paged mode. So unnecessary legacy modes are now removed, and should lead to faster systems in the future ??

    We will see how this works out though. Not very optimistic about this.
    Reply
  • atomicWAR
    Mandark said:
    Agree with this. Hope it happens. AMD
    Should also
    Me not so much. One of the many reasons I run a PC is because of backward compatibility. I still run a ton of old programsn OSes (the big issue) and games. This would be a product I'd refuse to buy because it simply wouldn't meet my computing needs. I would prefer native compute over emulation or VM any day of the week.
    Reply
  • Finally. It's about time. There will always be whining, but it has to be done eventually. I don't think x86 can go on as is. AMD is making APU server things with ZEN4, Intel follows suit with recent announcement, ARM took it's time but there are big players like Amazon backing it up. The good old x86 needs a change or it's going to wake up in a world where it is playing a catch-up game, similarly to Intel when ZEN came out.
    Reply
  • danny009
    No thanks, Intel/AMD needs to stop telling me what to buy,

    I run many games and software still runs on older side of things. I'm not going to jump into hype wagon this time, sorry.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    As with every news this is being overblown, just like with itanium, if intel is going to do this in the first place, they will run it alongside the normal x86 for many years, they will only completely transition if and when normal x86 sales drop to such a low point that it wouldn't make any sense for them to keep it going.
    As long as intel can keep making money from x86 they will keep making money from it.
    Reply
  • richardvday
    The only people affected those running Older software which most people would not even consider nowadays.
    There are always going to be people who fight changes. You can always run the older software in a virtual environment .
    That backwards compatibility is an anchor holding both Intel and Amd back.
    Reply
  • kerberos_20
    didnt intel already try this with IA64? and how it went, tho back then 32bit was dominant
    Reply
  • jonathanrk
    atomicWAR said:
    Me not so much. One of the many reasons I run a PC is because of backward compatibility. I still run a ton of old 32bit programs and games. This would be a product I'd refuse to buy because it simply wouldn't meet my computing needs. I guess its possible you could use an emulation layer but I would need to see this in action and even then I would prefer native compute over emulation any day of the week.
    This is a misconception. This removes many extremely archaic modes. Most of these have to do with OS/BIOS-level code, like running 1980s DOS on bare metal. It very much does not remove the modern 32-bit-apps-on-64-bit-kernel modes – quoting the whitepaper:
    The 32-bit submode of Intel64 (compatibility mode) still exists
    This is what you use every time you run a 32-bit app on your regular modern Windows or Linux install today.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    This is largely removing the "Legacy Modes" defined in the current x86-64 ISA. See (from here):
    https://i.imgur.com/Acr98aW.png
    So unless you're running a 32-bit version of Windows or some other OS that runs in one of those Legacy modes, this isn't going to affect your legacy application support.

    Also fun fact, you can run 16-bit apps in Long Mode (the 64-bit mode in x86-64), but the only reason why you can't in Windows is because Microsoft didn't include any 16-bit compatibility shims like they did with 32-bit apps (also probably because they figured nobody was using 16-bit apps)
    Reply