Microsoft Corporation today unveiled plans to add another bunch of Windows Server 2003 versions into its roadmap, but postpone the release of all until the second half of 2004. The move pushes the long-awaited Windows OS for AMD 64-bit Opteron processors.

According to the statement, there will be 4 versions of Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit IA64 and AMD64 platforms:

• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition for Intel Itanium Systems;
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems (AMD64);
• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems (AMD64).

All three products will ship with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 which is due in the second half of 2004 after the delay announced last week.  

“We are seeing increased customer interest in running 64-bit operating systems on smaller servers of four processors or less,” says John Borozan, product manager with Windows Server quoted by Microsoft-Watch. “A greater number of customers are seeing they can get more out of their 64-bit computing investments without having to go eight-way.”

Borozan says Microsoft is planning to price its forthcoming Windows Server Itanium and Opteron SKUs the same as it has the existing 32-bit versions of its Standard and Enterprise server products.

The postponement of the release will probably affect negatively AMD Opteron-based servers adoption by numerous enterprises.