Enough about Windows 7: what about 8 or 9? 128-bit slated!

Can't bear to read another Windows 7 story? How about Windows 8? Or 9? In IT Blogwatch, bloggers ponder rumors of 128-bit support; of cabbages and kings.

By Richi Jennings. October 8, 2009.
(MSFT)

Your humble blogwatcher selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention super social networking...
 
 
Emil Protalinski has been reading the tea leaves:

Believe it or not, Windows 7's successor(s) have been in the planning and early development stages for a while now. ... We've been watching closely to see if anything really interesting turned up. Exactly two weeks ago, it did. A LinkedIn profile ... has shone a sliver of light on the possibility of 128-bit support coming to Windows 8. ... Windows 8 News found Morgan's profile first.
...
[Let's] look at what we've heard about Windows 8 so far. ... "DFSR ... cluster support and support for one way replication ... dramatic performance improvements" ... "TLZ file compression engine for Hibernate/Resume" ... "PatchGuard follow-on" ... Remember that all this talk is very early in the game. We won't see Windows 8 released until 2011 at the earliest, and 2012 is more likely..

 
Marius Oiaga works the Google-fu:

Forget 64-bit, Microsoft has already been exploring 128-bit support scenarios for future releases of Windows. ... Windows 8 is not expected ahead of 2011, with Windows 9 following it in 2014, in the most optimistic scenario possible.
...
The [LinkedIn] profile in question has been taken down, but thanks to Google cache, users can still access it and read information about the 128-bit work done at Microsoft for Windows 8 and Windows 9 right from the source.

Cameron Lockwood is surprised:

According to that developer, Robert Morgan, Windows 8 and 9 will both have some degree of 128-bit architecture compatibility, with the latter OS definitely supporting IA-128. ... Microsoft was expected to make Windows 8 64-bit only. That would follow on from Windows Server 2008 R2, which is 64-bit. Windows 8 may not be fully 128-bit ready – after all, Morgan only says they’re working on full binary compatibility..

But The Oracle brings us back to Earth with a bump:

When I look at the systems I work on, it is both amazing and a hard slap of reality. The average system I work on has only 512MB of memory, and many systems ... have only 256MB. Of course these are systems that were purchased 3 – 4 years ago, and you simply would not believe how difficult it is to make the operating managers of these places see what might happen to productivity if those machines were bumped to at least 1GB.
...
Moving to 64-bit computing seems to be almost the last thing on their minds. As a matter of fact, I can’t say I have ever worked on a machine that has a 64-bit OS installed (other than enthusiast friends’ machines). ... So why, when they have yet to release 64-bit versions of their own programs (Office, Windows Live essentials, etc.) would Microsoft get all fired up about 128-bit computing?

 
And latrosicarius pours cold water on the idea:

Ahhh, a 128-bit OS. For those annoying times when you need more than 18.45 exabytes of RAM.

Seriously, what is the benefit of this? They need to worry about moving on to a consistent and ubiquitous 64-bit architecture first. I was disappointed when Windows 7 came out with a 32-bit flavor.

Mike Johnson replies:

There are other benefits to 128bit architectures than RAM addressing. This could lead to higher throughput in GPU+CPU situations, potentially faster encryption/decryption systems, etc. Things can potentially move faster if you can move more data in one shot.

 
Meanwhile, Ryan Whitwam is loving the LinkedIn leaks:

We most likely won’t even see Windows 8 until at least 2011, but more likely 2012. ... Until then, keep an eye on LinkedIn. Apparently people love divulging details in their profiles.

 
So what's your take?
Get involved: leave a comment.
 
 
And finally...

• Super-Social Networking: Superhero Facebook Status Updates

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter, or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.

 
 
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