Re: [Nolug] my next laptop

On Sun, 2004-01-18 at 23:14, John Tiedeman wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 22:15:05 -0600
> Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
> >On Sun, 2004-01-18 at 21:01, Alex McKenzie wrote:
> >> Joey Kelly wrote:
[snip]
> The fact that the AMD 64-bit CPUs can run 32-bit programs is the main reason
> I bought some AMD stock when it was first announced that this was AMD's
> plan. I don't hold any Intel stock (or any Microsoft either!).
>
> When the changeover from 16-bit to 32-bit occurred, the situation was like
> this--the 32-bit instruction set is just a superset of the 16-bit, and there
> were only minor changeover problems. I think Intel made a big mistake in not
> doing it this way again. Who wants to rewrite, or at least recompile, the
> thousands of individual programs in a large installation? I don't think
> we're going to see a lot of sales of Intel's 64-bit CPUs any time soon.

They did it (back in, what, 1993?) because they didn't think that
the x86 chipset could be successfully expanded a 4th time.

The AMD engineers thought outside the box, and figured out how to
expand it.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA
"Go not unto the Usenet for advice, for you will be told both
yea and nay (and quite a few things that just have nothing at
all to do with the question)."
Unknown
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