Computing in 64 bits

64-bit processors are not new, but the one due soon will spread 64-bit technology more widely over desktops than any previous version. The 64-bit era is about to bloom. The small square is an IBM processor without carrier and pins. Building processors with copper, a more-efficient conductor than the aluminum used on most others, has been one recent manufacturing feat for Big Blue. It's not pretty, but Intel's 64-bit processor, cache, and cartridge will influence for many years how software is written and used. The processor may be released for commercial sale in the first quarter of next year. Intel offers this graph as a guide to future releases of its processors. The company is also planning buses to compliment them. For instance, Xeon chips have been teamed with Intel 840 chips to support up to four processors, a 133-MHz front side bus, and Rambus memory capable of 3.2 Gbytes/sec. Itaniums will get 460GX chipsets to support four processors on a faster front-side bus, and error correction code (ECC) on memory and data paths. Modern processors are more than arithmetic units. The Itanium involves a design called Epic for explicitly parallel instruction computing. Speculation functions estimate what data and instructions might be needed to make each clock cycle as productive as possible. Early next year, Intel is expected to release its first 64-bit processor, the product of a four-year collaboration between itself and Hewlett-Packard Co. Although 64-bit CPUs have come before, Intel's Itanium will eventually find its way onto many more engineering desktop computers than its predecessors. The capability delivered by this processor will ripple through engineering departments for the next 20 years. Exactly how the new technology will change the way engineers work is not entirely clear from this early perspective, aside from erasing all distinctions between PCs and workstations.