“Hidden away in a quiet nook of the Microsoft booth complex at
Las Vegas’ spring NetWorld+Interop, the premier alpha version of
64-bit Windows took its first precarious public steps. While
its performance and features were unexceptional, the important
thing about this early program isn’t how well it runs–but that it
runs at all.”
“Running on a preproduction Intel Merced processor, the
operating system proved itself as a complete 64-bit OS–from
notebook to the kernel. But it’s doubtful the OS will hit its
target of being in early beta by the summer and in production by
fall–a schedule outlined by Microsoft product manager Dave
Cluba.”
“To Microsoft’s credit, however, there will be no attempt to
upgrade Windows 2000 into a slightly different version. W2K-64
functionality is based on existing Windows 2000 Professional and
Server code. Changes made to the 32-bit operating systems will be
reflected immediately in the 64-bit version.”