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Monday, January 5, 2004
![[Item Permalink]](http://radio.weblogs.com/0112083/images/ur_bullet.gif){kind=small} Who was first with 64-bit computing? -- Comment()
A reader commented my entry on the three best products for 2003 as follows: "[The] G5 really is a nice machine, however, it isn't the machine that made 64-bit computing a reality in the market place, nor is it the first machine to do so. The first true, consumer machine to do that would be a PC, the AMD Opteron. It was out first, for quite a bit cheaper with comparable if not better performance. Granted, neither of them really makes USE of the 64-Bit capabilities since neither Windows nor OS X does. Running Linux would give you that but...not all applications work well with it." Thanks for this view. Here we have an argument, as I wrote in my entry: "Apple PowerMac G5 dual 2 GHz [...] is (arguably) the fastest desktop on Earth, and made 64-bit computing a reality in the workplace". But I must admit: neither Opterons nor G5 are really that widespread in the workplace so far. It takes some time for 64-bit computing to become mainstream. As a sidenote, a PC magazine in Finland selected the Apple G5 dual as the computer of the year 2003. But there was a separate category for 64-bit computing, and no mention of the G5 in this category. What were they thinking? However, neither G5 and Opteron can boast of being the first 64-bit machine on the desktop. That accomplishment belongs to - who? Perhaps an Alpha-based workstation was the first?
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