According to a leak from an employee named Robert Morgan of Microsoft through the use of his profile in LinkedIn.com, Windows 8 will have 128-bit architecture. Windows 7 is set to be released officially on October 22nd, but now we are talking about Windows 8 already, but why not since we have a leak that is fueling a debate. Windows 7 is supporting 64-bit and 32-bit architectures. Software are only starting to support 64-bit architecture, and so 128-bit architecture is going to be redundant if it’s available now.
When we’re talking about the bit architecture, we’re also talking about the address space. From what I read, most computer instructions are fitting into 32-bit address space and 64-bit address space. When mathematically expressing 32-bit architecture, it’s 232, and it’s also equal to 4GB of address space. When mathematically expressing 64-bit architecture, it’s 264, and it’s also equal to 18.45 Exabytes. And so you could imagine how large is 128-bit eh? Why not pull out your scientific calculator and have a blast at the math of 128-bit?
According to a leak, Windows 8 will use 128-bit architecture, this means a computer that is 128-bit compatible with Windows 8 will have a really large address space to address a very flexible hardware and software configuration. 128-bit architecture will afford larger hard-drive, larger RAM configuration in terms of physical RAM and virtual RAM, and a larger combination of more powerful I/O devices and cards. Throwing on more processors or cores, and you will have a very powerful computer. For your information, if you have a PS3 video game console, you already have a 128-bit architecture machine. This means 128-bit architecture is already in use by Sony.
Vinh Nguyen
