32bit servers consigned to history

Microsoft is to phase out 32bit versions of its Windows server operating system, the company has revealed.

The first release of Longhorn, the server version of next-generation Windows Vista, will support both 32bit and 64bit hardware. But Release 2 of Longhorn, expected to launch in 2009, will be 64bit only, according to Bob Muglia, senior vice-president of Microsoft’s enterprise-management group.

He told developers at the company’s IT Forum in Barcelona that 64bit code runs ‘most’ 32bit applications, often as much as 10 per cent faster.

He admitted that companies would have to replace 32bit hardware to run the new version, but he said most were already switching to 64bit machines, even if they were running 32bit software.

‘When you buy a server today it is going to be 64bit,’ he said.’ The only exception is with really low-end machines that are designed for the desktop but used as servers.’

Exchange Server 12, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, and the small business version of Longhorn will also be exclusively 64bit, Muglia said.

He stressed that speed and an extended address space were not the only advantages of 64bit.

He claimed 64bit systems being used within Microsoft had proved more reliable than 32bit; they were also more secure because of a feature called Patch Guard, which prevented rogue code from interfering with the kernel code.

This could not be done with 32bit code because a number of applications patched the kernel legitimately.