Stock of Advanced Micro Devices should now rise because Microsoft Corporation today announced it is developing native 64-bit versions of its Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems designed to support the upcoming AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 processors.

Microsoft is extending 64-bit support in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to run natively on the upcoming AMD Opteron processor for servers and workstations and the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor for desktops and notebooks. Desktop and server beta releases are expected in the middle of 2003.

Being able to run both 32- and 64-bit applications the upcoming Windows XP products as well as AMD x86-64 chips are said to protect customer’s investments when transiting to 64-bit platforms.

The 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 for the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron processors are designed for use on servers and high-end desktops and workstations. They are expected to increase the efficiency of many operations, including engineering and scientific projects, financial services, online transaction processing, data warehousing, digital content creation, video editing, advanced gaming, and computer-aided design.

In the fourth quarter last year Microsoft delivered to industry partners a developmental release of the 64-bit operating system with application development tools for the AMD 64-bit processor hardware.