Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Inside Out

64-Bit Computing

With Windows Server 2003, 64-bit computing achieves its full potential. Not only do computers running 64-bit versions of Windows perform better and run faster than their 32-bit counterparts, they are also more scalable, as they can process more data per clock cycle, address more memory, and perform numeric calculations faster. Windows Server 2003 supports two different 64-bit architectures:

• The first architecture is based on the Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) processor architecture, which is implemented in Intel Itanium (IA-64) processors. This architecture offers native 64-bit processing, allowing 64-bit applications to achieve optimal performance.

• The second architecture is based on 64-bit extensions to the x86 ...