Now that RAM has gotten cheaper to make and buy, many users have reached the limitation of 32-bit computing- the OS cannot read more than about three GB of RAM. With Windows seven about to come out, is the end of 32-bit computing finally here?
A few of us were around long enough for the last big leap in Windows Operating Systems. With the release of Windows NT, Windows ditched the 16-bit environment in favor of a fully 32-bit operating system. We may very well see the same thing with the release of Windows 7, which is slated to be fully 64-bit. With the recent plummet in price of RAM, it is now possible for the average computer user to be able to afford 4 GB or RAM, or more. However, this extra RAM is no use on a 32-bit operating system, as it does not have the bits to read more than about 3 GB or RAM. This glass ceiling of memory usage is now an impasse to further increases in performance, and to be able to read more RAM requires a 64-bit operating system. However, with the current software market, there are multiple obstacles to effectively using a 64-bit operating system, since most commercial software is written for 32-bit operating systems only. The market will not develop 64-bit software unless they are required to, which requires a full migration to the 64-bit architecture by OS manufacturers such as Microsoft.
And that is exactly what they are going to do, with the advent of Windows 7. With Microsoft putting pressure on the market, software companies will be forced to shift along with the new market to maintain their customer base. Unlike Vista, it is intended to be an incremental update, improving backwards compatibility with devices, and improving performance. Visually, it will look largely the same as Vista, but will have a leaner kernel, with features added by the user a la carte.
With the leap to 64-bit computing, we may well see new developments that were never possible before, with performance taking another great leap, with the glass ceiling of RAM usage shattered.
