Will Windows 8 Support 128 bit processors

[smart_niec5]

Windows 8 (128 bit version)
Last month a number of sites,picked up on rumours that Windows 8 would support 128-bit processors. The main ’source’ of the rumours was a Robert Morgan who was a “senior member of Microsoft’s R&D team” who leaked information about Windows 8’s 128 bit capabilities on his LinkedIn profile.
Dilemma:
Whether or not Windows 8 will support 128bit remains to be seen, but at this stage Microsoft are at least considering it. I’m not sure how likely this will be though; 64 bit adoption is still low and although this will increase by 2011 I just fear that adding 128bit to Windows 8 will create a poor customer experience like Vista 64 bit, where driver availability was poor.

[Duckeenie]

Maybe they'll compile a version that is aimed at supercomputers to take some of the glory back from Linux and earn a little free publicity but I really don't think such a version would be available to regular end users.

[Flatlands]

I would guess it will, should there be enough around at a decent price the public could afford. Might also be the end of 32 bit support

[smart_niec5]

I would guess it will, should there be enough around at a decent price the public could afford. Might also be the end of 32 bit support

This time they wont be making something new after discarding the old one i.e. the versions that will come in to market this time will have bth 32 bit as well as 64 and 128 bit support too.

[Duckeenie]

You guys really believe that the 16 exabytes afforded by 64bit won't be enough for some desktop users? 2011 is next year guys!

[Martin]

I doubt that it will support 128-bit if it comes out in 2011 (which I doubt as well)

[libeco]

Not only do many users not switch to a x64 configuration, many software is still only available in x32. Adobe's Creative Suite 4 for instance has Photoshop x64, but all other programs are x32. I think this will have to change first before MS will actually consider adding a 128 bit version.

[PapaDuke]

Software really lags behind hardware.
My 7 year old computer can still play today's games. Albeit with lowered graphics, but playable all the same. 128 bit will take af least a decade to adopt. Didn't it take that long to fully go from 16 bit to 64? And we're not fully there yet...

[james]

Frankly there's no need.
Don't forget a 128 bit OS would probably have no support for 32-bit applications, which would be disastrous.
Also, I doubt Intel or anyone else have a 128 bit chip in the pipeline. The word size is not the bottleneck in terms of performance.
Okay so you can work with truly enormous numbers. This only has application in things like Pixar render farms.

As far as maximum addressable memory goes, we can safely say there's no WAY the 64-bit limit is going to be breached any time soon.

[sml156]

There is no way they will go 128 bit in 2011 that would be insane , they will skip 128 and jump to 256 bit makes way more sense to me