32 bit or 64 bit? What does this mean?

How do I know if my computer is a 32 bit of 64 bit? When I download, it often asks this question. I am unsure what to answer so often don't download. Could someone explain? I have a Compaq 6410NX with an AMD Athlon XP processor 2000+ operating at 1.67GHz and 256MB DDR SDRAM memory with up to 32 MB allocated to video memory. Thanks for any help. I have Windows XP Home Edition. Thanks in advance....Pat

 

as robo said, you have a 32-bit pc. 64-bit is just now being released.

for technical info, go to ... well...that link got squished, lets try again : http://devrsrc1.external.hp.com/STK/partner/64what.html

 

Well.. Win XP is a 32 bit operating system and the Athlon XP is a 32 bit processor so I would say your in the 32 bit zone.

 

hey, i know im not answering the question, im kinda asking one. i know enough about the differences between 32 and 64 bit processors, but i dnt know the details. such as, specifically how do they work differently. MA, i think this might be a good question answerd in faq

 

Thanks!!!!

Major Geeks is the so awesome...I always get my questions answered here! I don't really care about all the technicalities...just which one did I have...and now I know and can download without worry. Thank you!!!!

 

There are 64-bit WinXP versions available.

32-bit and 64-bit processors use different size registers and use different adressing modes, 64-bits are still completely backwards compatible with 32-bits (And like 32-bits are backwards compitable with 16-bits), I'm not sure the specifics of how the adressing works on 64-bits (Wether they use 4kb/4mb etc. granularity), but bassicly they can access larger amounts of memory (32-bit computers maximum RAM is 4 gb (4 bytes (32-bits (20 (1 mb (Maximum acessible from segmented memory model)) + 12 (4 kb (granularity feature that can be enabled in the GDT at OS boot-up))))).

Yes, that was alot of paranthesis

 

Not for 32 bit CPUs, which an Athlon is 32 bit.

 

I know that I was responding to Well.. Win XP is a 32 bit operating system

 

so you answered his question

but how do you find the answeres to this question?

what is the easiest way to find out on your own, if you have 32 or 64 bit?

 

Just as a question, does anyone know how 64-bit processors actually differ to 32 bit? Do they work on the same basis, as in, the registers, and do they have the same number of pins? As that is how i presume you input the data into the registers. If they have the same number of pins, how can you put 64-bit data into it?

Was having a discussion with a friend at school about this, and i was explaining how P4 HT (Intel) can minic two 32-bit processors, but i wasnt sure how a true 64-bit processor works.

 

I thought is was just a non-puplic beta Vlad and it's not called Win Xp is it? It's like Win Xp 64 or somethin.

goldfish, I really don't know but with the Amd Xp vs 64's there is a pin differance, 462pin (Athlon Xp) 754 (Athlon 64) 940 (Athlon Fx). Here pretty soon they are switching to 939pin (Athlon 64 & Fx). So there is a bit of a pin differance from 32bit vs 64 bit wich allow more transfer but thats about all I know. I wonder if the 64's will allways be backwards-compatible with 32bit apps. 32bit will probly be outdates one of these days but that won't be anytime soon.

 

well, I know how it works, due o my EET classes, but it's hard to explain for me. I'll give it a go.
A 64-Bit CPU has increased register sizes. This is the primary diference. Having increased register sizes also allows you to have a different ISA though, such as the AMD-64. This allows the CPU to handle more complx instructions in a single clock size due o the increase in word size. Pins on a 64 Bit CPU are like pins on any other CPU, it depends on the packaing and the interconect technology. Opterons and anything based on the Opteron will have quite a few pins because they have integrated memory controllers. Currently there are two versions, the Athlon 64 and the Athlon fx. The Athlon 64 is 754 Pins, bu it does not support dual channel memory, the FX is 940 pins, and does support dual chanel. So even thouh they're the same basic core you've got a 200 pin difference just because of the memory controller. HT is still using a 32 bit bus, but the Opteron and it's derivatives and the Itanium are ture 64 bit because they're entire pipeline is 64 bits wide.

Also, not all CPU's are backwards compaible, this was opne of the reasons that the Itanium failed, it had to emulate the x86-32 ISA. AMD built the x86-64 ISA as an extension to x86-32, making it fully backwards compatible.

 

the reason for the swicth to the 939 pin package is that the memory controllers are being redesiged. This will give boh te FX and Athlon 64 the abiliy o have dual chanel memory without the need for ecc registered memory(Athlon FX only, the athlon 64 doesn't have dual chanel at all). This is due to he legacy of the Opteron, with the redesigned memory controller and dual chanel the next big hurdle will be a NUMA (non-unified memory architecture) aware OS. With seperate banks of memory for dual CPU athlon fx systems then you could in theory double the memory bandwidth. For a better explanation of this then you can look at the white papers for Windows XP 64. Which is a public beta right now, so anybody with a 64 bit AMD CPU should go o MS website and download the ISO. Also, if you take a look at the Tyan Thunder K8 then you will see what I'm talkin about, it's an extended ATX board that has a bank of memory for each CPU, and each bank is dual channel with 4 dimm slots. So you could have 16 GB of what amounts to Quad Channel memory. Big things are coming folks.

 

Well, think about it this way, the 64-bit Athlons (and Intels'), still start out in the same mode as 16-bits' on the 8086, If anything, 16-bit compitablity should be dropped, but x86 is a really really dirty hack.

 

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/x86-64_wp.pdf

There's the white paper for the x86-64 ISA, that should tell you everything you want o know. Take into mind though that the itanium funs it's own ISA, it's IA-64. So you'l have to find that one if you want o know about how the Itanium works.

 

What is 'minic'?

If I understood correctly bassicly the 64-bit just has all registers ax/eax and it has the extension rax to access 64-bit registers as well as several new general registers and XMM registers (Yay for 128-bit registers)

 

*sorry* miMIC, as in, pretend to be!

So overall its generally improved, rather than a couple of specific things being developed?

 

yes, HT basically is two execution units that share the same cache, the concept behind that is that if you have a cache miss (cahce didn't prefecth the proper data) that at least the other execution core will accomplish some work. Problem with HT is that they share the same cache. 64 bit processing is completely different. The kicker is that the opteron cores and derivatives were desigend in mind with multiple cores on a chip. Basically two complete cpu's on one die, no shared cache. When AMD decides to come out with this feature then I really think they'll have a shot at taking over the server market. Depends on how quickly intel reacts and with what. HT is a good idea, but it does suffer from that one drawback.