Buy smart, buy 64-bit

By Warwick Ashford, ITWeb London correspondent

Johannesburg, 12 Dec 2003

As new multimedia applications continue to demand increasingly high-end machines, AMD advises Christmas shoppers not to buy hardware that will not carry them very far into the future.

"It`s not a good idea to buy a 32-bit computer for Christmas when in six to nine months a 64-bit computer will be necessary to run the latest gaming software," says Pierre Brunswick, AMD regional sales GM for Africa and the Middle East.

"If one considers most people buy computers to last three to four years, it would be stupid to buy a 32-bit machine over the Christmas period because within six months, up to 10% of software and multimedia devices on the market will be incompatible." Brunswick says this is likely to increase to 20% within nine months.

"Within two years, which is just half the expected lifetime of the computer, up to 60% of software and devices will require 64-bit processors." Brunswick says businesses can phase in the new processors gradually and avoid the cost of having to migrate all users at the same time. "64-bit machines can be used straight away, but will still be relevant in four years` time."

Brunswick advises high-end PC users to either buy a 64-bit machine now if they can afford it, or to wait until 64-bit machines become more pervasive and there is the inevitable fall in price "although it is almost impossible to predict when that will be".

"There are those who say there is not yet any application for 64-bit machines, but that`s not true," argues Brunswick, "that`s a short-term vision." He says AMD is already able to deliver 64-bit machines at a highly competitive price. "Now is the right time to change to 64-bit and prepare for the new technology that is coming."

Brunswick says the possibilities of 64-bit computing will see a worldwide migration in the coming months, particularly in applications used for modelling, simulation, databases and multimedia rendering. "64-bit processors are the future in which dreams such as cinematic computing can be made a reality."