Intime,64-bitPCscouldchangethefaceofdesktopcomputing.A64-bitchipcanrunlonger,morecomplexinstructionsthana32-bitone,improvingperformanceofdataintensivetaskssuchasaudioandvideoencoding,advancedengineeringdesignapps1,and,naturally,games.
Equallykeyisa64-bitCPU'sabilitytorecognizeandusealotmoreRAM2.Today's32-bitchips,suchasAMD'sAthlonXPandIntel'sPentium4,canaddressupto4GBofRAMsplitbetweentheOSandapplications.FewPCshavethatmuchmemory,andevenfewerappsuseit.Butwithever-more-complexsoftware,thatlimitationmaybecomeabottleneck,makingAthlon64'sabilitytoaddressawhoppingterabyte(1000GB)3ofphysicalmemoryveryattractive.
WhyisAMDpushingthe64-bitangleatall?Becausecompanyexecutivesbelievethe64-bitdesktopageisdawningnow."Oncevideoeditorswatcha64-bitPCencodevideodirectlytoaDVDonthefly,they'llwantone,"saysRichHeye,vicepresidentofAMD'smicroprocessorunit.Andoncegamersseethecinematicqualitythat64-bitchipshelpmakepossible,they'llwantone.Thoughmass-marketadoptionwilltakeafewyears,"theaveragelifetimeofaPCisthreetofouryears,andIthinkalotofpeoplewillberunning64bitsbeforethat'sup,"Heyesays.
ExecutivesatInteldisagree,seeing64-bitcomputingaslargelyaservertechnologyintheshortterm."Withjust5percentofserversusing64-bitaddressability,thereislittleneedtoday[for64bits]onthedesktop,"saysGeorgeAlfs,Intelspokesperson,addingthatwithoutsoftwareandothertoolstomakeitworkatitsbest,64bitsdoesn'tmeanmuch.
MicroDesignResources'sKrewellseesIntel'sresistanceto64bitsforthedesktopasamovetoprotectitssizeableinvestmentinits64-bitItaniumCPU,designedforserversandworkstations.
Meanwhile,withAthlon64,AMDhasreignitedthechipwars."That'salwaysgoodnewsforusers,"saysMDR'sKrewell.
Ⅰ.Choosethewordwhichhasthesameorsimilarmeaningwiththeunderlinedword:
![2017年12月英语四级阅读200篇："64位大帝"登基](https://pic.shutu.cn/shutu/static/2023/03/16/a23f7f/a23f7f22143a6c7b4601d15f46e4b011.jpeg!w2560?v=37931658 "2017年12月英语四级阅读200篇："64位大帝"登基")
