The industrial software application, running the operation for the
complicated piece of equipment, I support on a daily basis, Optical Surface
Analyzer, is based on the Windows XP 32-bit Operating System. The application
is extremely memory consuming, requiring saving huge amounts of data in one
process and guaranteeing smooth operation of the automatic robotic laser-based
tool. Sufficient memory is essential for that, but developers reached the limit
of the memory limitations of the Windows for a single process (which is 2 GB),
and even sophisticated manual rebase of the drivers to free the virtual memory
interval does not help. Customers are curious how this limit can be pushed forward
to expand the tool capabilities. Multiple tests proved that no logical steps in
the current framework, like increasing RAM or managing better the virtual
memory, can help.
But, there is solution – transition to the 64-bit Windows OS. What is
absolute necessity for the industrial professional applications, might not be
so critical for the computer home users, unless you also use the heavy memory
consuming programs, like games, graphic utilities, or video editing
applications. In any case, Windows 64-bit slowly but steadily makes it way to
the consumer market.
So, let’s review what the difference is, and how you can benefit from
using this next generation OS in in brief questions and answers session:
- What is the difference
between 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows?
The terms 32-bit and
64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU), handles
information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random
access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system.
- How can be
the difference explained a simple way?
Think of your
computer as a series of tubes that can either be 32 or 64 bits wide. When you
have the smaller 32-bit size, there is more potential for bottlenecks to occur.
Bottlenecks slow down your system because one process has to wait for another
to finish before it can begin. But if you want to have 64-bit wide tubes, your
computer needs to be thinking in 64-bit so your software and hardware all need
to support 64-bit.
- What is the difference in terms of the memory management?
On a 32-bit
operating system, you are restricted to a maximum of 4 gigabytes of RAM. On a
64-bit operating system, you really do not have a limit. Normally when you
exhaust your physical RAM on a 32-bit system, it has to use virtual memory or
hard disk space to pick up the slack. On a 64-bit system, you can install as
much RAM as you can to cover your overhead.
- What are the main advantages of the 64-bit Windows?
•
More RAM. 64-bit versions are theoretically
capable of supporting a little over 17 billion GBs of RAM due to the spacious
register system. Realistically, Windows 7 64-bit Home editions are limited
(because of licensing issues, not physical limitations) to 16GB of RAM and the
Professional and Ultimate editions can be extended up to 192GB of RAM.
•
Increased efficiency. Not only can you install more RAM in your system (as much as your
motherboard can support) you will also use your installed RAM with greater
efficiency. Because of the nature of the 64-bit address system in the register
and how Windows 64-bit allocates memory you’ll see less of your system memory consumed
by secondary systems (like your video card).
•
Virtual memory allocation. Your computer will be able to allocate significantly more virtual
memory per process. Under 32-bit architecture Windows is
limited to assigning 2GB of memory to an application. Modern games, video and
photo editing applications, and other memory consuming applications like
virtual machines, need a lot of memory each. Under 64-bit systems they can have
theoretically up to 8TB of virtual memory. On top of the more efficient
use and allocation of memory, applications optimized for 64-bit operating
systems, such as Photoshop and Virtualbox, are super fast and take full
advantage of the spaciousness of the processor and memory afforded to them.
•
Advanced security features. Windows 64-bit with a modern 64-bit processor enjoys additional
protections not available to 32-bit users. These protections include the hardware
D.E.P., as well as Kernel Patch Protection that protects
you against kernel exploits, and device drivers must be digitally signed which
cuts down on the incident of driver-related infections.
- What are the main disadvantages of the 64-bit Windows?
•
Need
dedicated 64-bit drivers. You may not be able to find 64-bit drivers for
older but critical devices on your system. For small things that are easily
replaced or need to be upgraded anyway, this isn’t a big deal. For mission
critical and expensive hardware it is. You’ll have to decide for yourself if
the upgrade cost and tradeoffs are worth it.
•
May need a
new Motherboard. You may have a
motherboard, which will not support 64-bit processor, or will support an early
64-bit processor but not support more than 4GB of RAM. In this case you’ll
still get some of the benefits of a 64-bit processor but you won’t get the
benefit that most people crave: access to more memory.
•
Old
software issues. Some older software, developed for 34-bit, cannot be
easily used on 64-bit. Also, unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 7
64-bit has no support at all for 16-bit applications. If by some chance you’re
still using a really old legacy application for something you’ll need to either
virtualize it or forgo an upgrade. Also, just because an application itself is
64-bit, it doesn’t mean that all plugins and extensions for it are 64-bit as
well.
64-bit Windows looks
really good, isn’t it? But that does not mean that you need to scrap or upgrade
your existing computer immediately. Frankly, it all depends on what are you
using this computer for. For general day-to-day applications, your hardware and
software fill your needs perfectly well. However, if you are computer user,
suffering from the memory deficiency, there is solution, and this solution is
Windows 7 64-bit.
Sources and Additional Information:
