How solid is 64 bit Windows?

  • Thread starter Thread starter General Schvantzkoph
  • Start date Start date
G

General Schvantzkoph

I'm asking this question for my business partner. We do chip design, I use
Linux and NCVerilog, he uses Windows and ModelSim. I have an A64 X2 4400+
system with 4G of RAM running 64 bit Fedora Core 3. He is about to
purchase an identical system but with Windows. Our simulations are using
more than 2G of RAM which is what's prompting him to upgrade. What I want
to know is if the 64 bit version of Windows is reasonably stable or if he
should get XP Pro for his new system. The lack of drivers for things like
wireless cards doesn't matter since the machine will be using ethernet.
How well do 32 bit binaries run on 64 bit XP? On my Linux machine I'm
running 32 bit NC and 32 bit Xilinx tools with no problem, can I assume
that he'll be able to run 32 bit tools on 64 bit XP?

Thanks,
 
General Schvantzkoph said:
I'm asking this question for my business partner. We do chip design, I use
Linux and NCVerilog, he uses Windows and ModelSim. I have an A64 X2 4400+
system with 4G of RAM running 64 bit Fedora Core 3. He is about to
purchase an identical system but with Windows. Our simulations are using
more than 2G of RAM which is what's prompting him to upgrade. What I want
to know is if the 64 bit version of Windows is reasonably stable or if he
should get XP Pro for his new system. The lack of drivers for things like
wireless cards doesn't matter since the machine will be using ethernet.
How well do 32 bit binaries run on 64 bit XP? On my Linux machine I'm
running 32 bit NC and 32 bit Xilinx tools with no problem, can I assume
that he'll be able to run 32 bit tools on 64 bit XP?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

My new system is XP Pro x64, very stable, Intel D945GTP, Intel D 640 (single
core 64 bit 3.2 GHz),
developing applications for .Net 1.1 with C# and C++ with .Net Studio 2003.
No crashes, no mysteries, drivers were a snap. Downloaded .Net beta 2.0 and
SDK, haven't
worked them hard yet.

I know, I know, the AMD'ers will whine about Intel, but I develop programs
for robots and machines, not games.
Intel has worked fine for me for years, and I don't need SATA2 as yet. (or
SLI for that matter)
I build AMD machines for friends that eat, drink, and dream games, and I'll
probably never drool like they do.

If your Verilog type programs (emulators, simulators, etc) have not been
tested by vendors, I wouldn't
depend on it if your budget is limited. Very few drivers for 64 bit as yet,
but 32 bit applications should work
WOW64 does the translations, and I haven't seen any performance hits.
NOTE: several programs (like Media Player) reported during install that they
were not installed properly, but worked fine later.

Initially, go with onboard NIC and video if the motherboard drivers are
availaible, since drivers are going thru a big shakedown right now.
You could lose hours (days?) and work if halfway thru a difficult project
something goes haywire and drivers interfere
with one another. You can always add gadgets later as more drivers become
available, and stable.

Initially, I was very dissappointed by the lack of anit-virus vendors that
have kept up, only to discover Nod32 (64 bit version brand new)
from www.eset.com. Small footprint, 30 day free trial, extremely stable.
It caught an embedded trojan in a 60 Meg video editing program
as it unpacked (trial version), from download.com.

I have completely abandoned 32 bit machines/operating systems. I am going
to try 64 bit Fedora Core 3 on the identical hardware next.
One thing I do miss is spell checker in Outlook Express. XP x64 has a few
odd missing parts.

Glenn E. Smith
Anode PC
PC based Automation

San Diego, Ca, home of the tank boy
 
I'm asking this question for my business partner. We do chip design, I
use Linux and NCVerilog, he uses Windows and ModelSim. I have an A64
X2 4400+ system with 4G of RAM running 64 bit Fedora Core 3. He is
about to purchase an identical system but with Windows. Our
simulations are using more than 2G of RAM which is what's prompting
him to upgrade. What I want to know is if the 64 bit version of
Windows is reasonably stable or if he should get XP Pro for his new
system.
Click to expand...

I've been using XP 64x since about end of May, and except for the STUPID
Nviadia firwall, all has been fine. My system isn't as "hot" as yours,
but I've seen people with "hotter" setups, and they reported no problems.

I did have a few BSD under early drivers, but it's been agaes.

The lack of drivers for things like wireless cards doesn't
matter since the machine will be using ethernet.
Click to expand...

The driver issues are changing slowly. I now have a driver for my
Brother multi function printer/scanner/fax, and it installed better than
the older version for the 32 bit windows!!! The scanner function works
better than my old scanner under XP!

How well do 32 bit
binaries run on 64 bit XP? On my Linux machine I'm running 32 bit NC
and 32 bit Xilinx tools with no problem, can I assume that he'll be
able to run 32 bit tools on 64 bit XP?
Click to expand...

About the only programs that will not run, are:
1. Ones that look for the Windoze "version" 64x is different that 32.

2. Low level tools. Even that is slowly changing. I can defrag my drive
(O&O's defragger), monitor my system (WinPatrol), and even re-partition
(LINUX SystemRescueDisk?) the drive. Now I can't run the system
optimizers yet, but I'm hoping.


Please note, about 2 monthes ago, I thought getting 64x was the stupidest
thing I'd done, but then software and such, started coming out.


--
____________________________________________
/ David Simpson \
| City of Heroes, Basic Stamp, RPGs, War Games |
| (e-mail address removed) |
| http://www.nyx.net/~dsimpson |
\____________________________________________/
 
I've been using XP 64x since about end of May, and except for the STUPID
Nviadia firwall, all has been fine. My system isn't as "hot" as yours,
but I've seen people with "hotter" setups, and they reported no problems.

I did have a few BSD under early drivers, but it's been agaes.



The driver issues are changing slowly. I now have a driver for my
Brother multi function printer/scanner/fax, and it installed better than
the older version for the 32 bit windows!!! The scanner function works
better than my old scanner under XP!



About the only programs that will not run, are:
1. Ones that look for the Windoze "version" 64x is different that 32.

2. Low level tools. Even that is slowly changing. I can defrag my drive
(O&O's defragger), monitor my system (WinPatrol), and even re-partition
(LINUX SystemRescueDisk?) the drive. Now I can't run the system
optimizers yet, but I'm hoping.


Please note, about 2 monthes ago, I thought getting 64x was the stupidest
thing I'd done, but then software and such, started coming out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all of the responses. It sounds like 64 bit Windows has reached
the stage where it's good enough.
 
I'm asking this question for my business partner. We do chip design, I use
Linux and NCVerilog, he uses Windows and ModelSim. I have an A64 X2 4400+
system with 4G of RAM running 64 bit Fedora Core 3. He is about to
purchase an identical system but with Windows. Our simulations are using
more than 2G of RAM which is what's prompting him to upgrade. What I want
to know is if the 64 bit version of Windows is reasonably stable or if he
should get XP Pro for his new system. The lack of drivers for things like
wireless cards doesn't matter since the machine will be using ethernet.
How well do 32 bit binaries run on 64 bit XP? On my Linux machine I'm
running 32 bit NC and 32 bit Xilinx tools with no problem, can I assume
that he'll be able to run 32 bit tools on 64 bit XP?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Couple things to look at...
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4407
http://www.3dvelocity.com/articles/win64compatibility/win64softlist.htm
 
Back
Top