As 64 bit technology takes over will new Celeron processors capable of 64 bit processing become available?

Question

Is it the end of the road for Celeron? Which processors will win the race? Is 128 bit processing viable, needed or desirable and by when? Will 64 bit machines make 32's obsolete as quickly as the 32's made the old 16's in '95? How long will it be practical to run and economic to repair & upgrade 32 bit machines?

Answer 1

Currently, it could be said that the Celeron is on "hiatus". However, Intel later plans to release a new Celeron variant later in the year.

As for transition to 64-Bit, I would say it will be quite a long way before it will become a standard. Because very few standard, commonly used software (Word processing, video editing, as well as games.) do take advantage of 64-bit.

Since the primary advantage of 64-bit is improvement of the bandwidth of data transfer between devices, very few application will actually get any major performance improvement out of it, hence the lack of transition.

To correct your in your facts though, even in Windows 3.1, certain processing is actually being done in 32-bit even in those times......

Answer 2

A lot of questions there so let me take then as I see them. There will be a new Celeron this spring, not sure whether it will run 64 bit, but since it is based on Conroe cores, I suspect it will. Win the race, if you mean AMD and Intel, they will both be around for a while one upping each other. Is 128 bit viable, don't look for it any time soon, but I would imagine some day yes you will see it. 64 bit is being fazed in rather slowly, I don't see 32 bit being truly obsolete for at least 3 more years, probably more. It should be viable to run 32 bit for several more years.

One last point, none of the current processors made are truly 64 bit only. They are 32 bit processors that use either AMD 64 or Intel EMT64 to make them run 64 bits.