New Features in Windows Server 2003

The most significant differences in hardware support come from the IA64 versions of Windows Server 2003. This includes the following:

  • New memory architecture to support a larger address space

  • Support for 64-bit device architectures such as PCI-X (this support is also included higher-end IA32 systems)

  • Improved drive partitioning using GUID Partition Tables (GPT) rather than legacy Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning

  • Application interoperability using the Windows32-on-Windows64 (WOW64) emulator

  • Registry and system file interoperability so that 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the same applications don't conflict with each other

Beyond the support for an entirely new platform, the watchwords for hardware support in ...

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