OPTERON OPTIMISTS are about to have their hopes dashed. Many industry watchers had thought that Microsoft was merely being cautious when the 64bit version of Windows Server 2003 only claimed support for Itanium. It seems that"s a long way from the case. Maybe it was just the Vole being careful and waiting for AMD to finally release the Opteron. Some even thought, including scribes here at THE INQUIRER, that there was a fair chance of the two companies making a joint announcement. Now you can scotch any ideas of that happening. EE Times managed to pop a few questions to Bob O"Brien, group product manager in the Microsoft Windows Server division. According to O"Brien, Microsoft hasn"t even decided what the x86-64 version of the product will look like, let alone when it will be released.
Interestingly enough, a quick conversation down the pub last week with a Vole mole led to us learning that AMD has been hyping up the performance of 32bit Windows. We didn"t make too much of it at the time but now the situation has changed.
Just when will Microsoft release Windows for x86-64? All bets are off. There is some speculation that a 64bit version of Windows XP will make it in time for the Clawhammer launch but even that must be in doubt.