Microsoft's x64 bit apps
It appears that MS is working hard on x64 versions of their applications. Obviously they are working on the x64 versions of the client and the server and are currently at the state of RC2. Along with the Operating Systems, they are working on Sql Server 2005, .NET Framework Whidbey, and other applications due to ship in 2005 according to this article. There are two interesting applications.
- Sql Server 2000. While not listed in the roadmap, I have heard that Sql Server 2000 sp4 will allow the 32 bit Sql Server to run on Windows for x64 operating systems through the WOW layer.
- .NET Whidbey. There are two 64 bit versions of the .NET 2.0 Framework. One for x64 and one for Itanium.
- VPC 2004 SP2. According to the roadmap, there is a consideration to get VPC to support 32 bits under the WOW64 layer. It appears that later editions of VPC will support x64.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1770386,00.asp
The interesting thing is the lack of support for Intel's Itanium IA64 architecture as shown in the roadmap graphic.