64 bit processor

[David Jones]

>It is called Alpha, hence the a in
>the IA64.

Er, no. The Alpha was a chip made by DEC, which was
purchased by Compaq/HP and is no longer being sold.

IA64 is Intel Architecture 64. The chip is the Itanium
(and now the Itanium 2).

>I belive it is called the Opteron or something pretty
>close.

Correct. Windows does not yet support the Opteron,
although it will later this year. The only current XP
version for 64-bit processors is for the Itanium (2)


The way to check is to go to a command prompt and
type "SET"

Look for the PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE line. If it says
x86, you have a 32-bit processor.

[Bob Willard]

David Jones wrote:
>>It is called Alpha, hence the a in
>>the IA64.
>
>
> Er, no. The Alpha was a chip made by DEC, which was
> purchased by Compaq/HP and is no longer being sold.

Uh, the Alpha *is* a chip that *is* made by the DEC piece of
the CPQ piece of HP, and it *is* still being sold. Current
Alpha-based systems are very different from PCs in architecture,
in weight, and in price.

There once was a version of NT that ran on some Alpha systems,
but it was never released. If you run any normal version of
Windows, you don't have an Alpha.

The A in IA64 does not stand for Alpha. Intel borrowed some
ideas from the VAX/Alpha gang, but they did not borrow names.
--
Cheers, Bob

[Ron Martell]

Bob Willard > wrote:

>David Jones wrote:
>>>It is called Alpha, hence the a in
>>>the IA64.
>>
>>
>> Er, no. The Alpha was a chip made by DEC, which was
>> purchased by Compaq/HP and is no longer being sold.
>
>Uh, the Alpha *is* a chip that *is* made by the DEC piece of
>the CPQ piece of HP, and it *is* still being sold. Current
>Alpha-based systems are very different from PCs in architecture,
>in weight, and in price.
>
>There once was a version of NT that ran on some Alpha systems,
>but it was never released. If you run any normal version of
>Windows, you don't have an Alpha.
>

Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 both have versions for the Alpha
processor. Support for that platform was discontinued with Windows
XP.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

[Bob Willard]

Ron Martell wrote:
> Bob Willard > wrote:
>
>
>>David Jones wrote:
>>
>>>>It is called Alpha, hence the a in
>>>>the IA64.
>>>
>>>
>>>Er, no. The Alpha was a chip made by DEC, which was
>>>purchased by Compaq/HP and is no longer being sold.
>>
>>Uh, the Alpha *is* a chip that *is* made by the DEC piece of
>>the CPQ piece of HP, and it *is* still being sold. Current
>>Alpha-based systems are very different from PCs in architecture,
>>in weight, and in price.
>>
>>There once was a version of NT that ran on some Alpha systems,
>>but it was never released. If you run any normal version of
>>Windows, you don't have an Alpha.
>>
>
>
> Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 both have versions for the Alpha
> processor. Support for that platform was discontinued with Windows
> XP.
>
>
> Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

Arrrgh; you're right. I should have checked, instead of trusting
my memory.
--
Cheers, Bob