Thursday, October 27, 2005

64-bit Computing in Theory and Practice. Fresh Investigation of 64-bit Code Benefit

11:54 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

Both Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. have been shipping desktop microprocessors with 64-bit capability for some time now. Earlier investigations showed that most of computer games, at best, did not get any performance increase while running under 64-bit operating system (OS). Moreover, some reviewers found out that sometimes utilizing a 64-bit environment resulted in performance degradation.

Now, with Windows XP x64 Edition OS and several revisions of 64-bit graphics drivers released, The Tech Report investigates performance of both AMD Athlon 64 and Intel Pentium 4 powered systems in 64-bit environment.

“For PC enthusiasts and gamers, moving to 64 bits may not present as many obvious advantages in the near term, but there’s also very little apparent penalty in going with Windows XP Pro x64, even if it’s only to run 32-bit applications. All of our gaming tests showed very little performance delta between WinXP and WinXP x64, and the same was generally true for other apps. Just make sure that 64-bit device drivers are available for your hardware. One question that our testing hasn’t answered is whether or not 64-bit versions of popular games will really bring notable performance gains. Judging by our experience with the Riddick game, it’s hard to be terribly optimistic on this front. 64-bit games do hold promise down the road, when really large textures and very complex worlds eat up more than 4GB of total RAM, but that day is still a long way off,” writes The Tech Report.

“As for the issue of whether the Athlon 64 or the Pentium 4 stands to gain more from 64-bit apps, well, I think the jury is still out. The applications we’ve tested have been all over the map on that question, and I’d hate to venture a guess. The best news, though, is that the typical scenario seems to involve solid performance increases on both architectures with 64-bit programs, if there is any performance increase at all. That makes sense, because both microarchitectures have dedicated transistors to the x86-64 ISA’s additional register space, and those new registers are the key to better performance,” concludes the author.

• The Tech Report: 64-bit Computing in Theory and Practice.

Screens on Laptops Set to Grow. 20” Laptop on the Horizon

11:29 pm | Yaroslav Lyssenko

Laptop market currently is the fastest growing segment of the computer market. Many manufacturers refresh their product lines relatively frequently providing their customers with more and more features and capabilities. While the modern laptops are powerful, fast and packed with various desktop functionality, their main difference with the desktop remains comparatively small screen. But even this problem has been being tackled for some time now.

When widescreen notebooks emerged, many were concerned with their relatively large dimensions, but due to increased desktop workspace which allowed to simultaneously view two documents side by side, the laptops with wide screens have become popular among some users. Furthermore, notebooks with 17” screens are becoming popular along with desktop replacement (DTR) mobile PCs and some companies are working to deliver even bigger screens on laptops.

"What we are seeing is the commercial market driving the manufacturers. In addition to watching movies or playing games, customers are appreciating that wide-screen formats let them view documents and spreadsheets side-by-side instead of scrolling up and down,” said Richard Shim, IDC analyst.

“But are consumers ready to lug around a 20-inch laptop? Shim said that displays measuring 15 inches and 17 inches on the diagonal - once considered too big to carry around - are now among the more popular versions. Even larger screen sizes are in the pipeline. Samsung has already shown its upcoming 19-inch laptop to CNET Reviews. The product is expected to ship later this year. Dell, a major partner of Samsung, could easily adopt the large screen format for its high-end XPS laptops. And, LG Philips is also touting its 20-inch LCD displays for laptops, Shim said,” writes CNET News.com.

• CNET News.com: Ready for a 20" Laptop?

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