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Published
21 Jun 2005Form Number
REDP3982PDF size
88 pages, 2.8 MBAbstract
Until now the Intel-processor server marketplace has been largely a 32-bit arena. Certainly systems with Intel Itanium 2 and AMD Opteron processors running Windows (Itanium) or Linux offer 64-bit processing, but mainstream computing has remained 32-bit. With the release of Windows Server 2003, x64 Edition, this is likely to begin to change. This new operating system from Microsoft has the opportunity to convince customers that a smooth migration from 32-bit to 64-bit is possible and will provide benefits in terms of performance and scalability. This is especially the case with enterprise customers, where the current 4 GB direct memory addressability limitation of 32-bit is already having an impact.
This redpaper introduces Windows Server 2003, x64 Edition, the 64-bit processors from Intel and AMD that support it, and the xSeries servers it will run on. We describe what 64-bit computing means, and the technology behind the processors. We also introduce the xSeries product line that include the Intel EM64T processor. We also describe how the new Windows operating system is different from its 32-bit counterpart. And finally, we discuss the migration options available to customers and developers.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction to this paper
Chapter 2. Hardware technology
Chapter 3. IBM products
Chapter 4. Windows Server 2003, x64 Edition
Chapter 5. Migration
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