Time to retire a 32-bit processor?

[TrafficProducer]

32 bit drivers on 64bit machine I wondered which 32 bit hardware devices, (out your old computer), you are trien to use on your 64bit computer?

[keyon]

I wondered which 32 bit hardware devices

Well, for one, I have a Tascam microphone mixer (about 2-3 years old). When I tried to re-install the software on my new computer, I got an error message saying something to the effect that the driver provided on the disc is for 32-bit machines, and I need to find a different driver that will work with my 64-bit computer.

[TrafficProducer]

Well, for one, I have a Tascam microphone mixer (about 2-3 years old). When I tried to re-install the software on my new computer, I got an error message saying something to the effect that the driver provided on the disc is for 32-bit machines, and I need to find a different driver that will work with my 64-bit computer.

What no help at, quite a number of links indicate 64 bit :-

http://tascam.com/product/us-144mkii/downloads/

(If you tried these already, sorry to sound arrogant, I am tring to help you out, without knowing, if I can)

[keyon]

quite a number of links indicate 64 bit

Yeah..the us-144 is the new(er) tascam model -- that replaces mine, which is discontinued.
I went ahead and downloaded the driver for new model...hoping it might work with my old unit. I think it works. However, it was a little confusing trying to get the old hardware to find and recognize the new driver.
I guess my point in all this conversation is that I didn't realize 32-bit systems and 64-bit systems would be so incompatible. Maybe it's just certain things that don't jive. I'm no hardware expert, that's for sure.

[weegillis]

Caution: May contain fluff.

When Windows went from 16-bit to 32-bit the fur was in the fan, as I remember. Their engineers quickly 'overcame' this with a method known as 'thunking.' It was an effort to support 16-bit software in the new architecture by mimicking it (or fooling the computer into thinking it is 16-bit). Not all that impractical, actually. I don't believe this issue hung around for long, but the thunking aspect lived in all versions of Windows right up to 98.

Of course, back then buss speeds where abysmally slower than today's hardware, and components simpler, smaller scale and far more integrated into the motherboard. Today's hardware is PnP in a big way, depending on a range of services and support drivers. This renders them massively more difficult to 'thunk' into compatibility in practical terms in a way that would allow applications to play well together. I don't know where I read this years ago, but IRQ conflicts were just the beginning of the problem.

[arungupta2012]

64-bit processor is better and faster then 32-bit processor technically. 64-bit processor have ability to handle more heavier processing and throughout high data output while comparing with 32-bit processor. But the thing is their are lots of software which only runs on 32-bit platform. Most of popular and big software are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit system, but not all. Because 32-bit is the most popular and affordable machine and used by probably most of official and home PC.

But still time is changing and we need to go high with technology, And the biggest reason for switch to 64-bit machine is the memory handling capacity.
Yes, 64-bit machine have capacity to support the RAM of 92GB where 32-bit machine supports only 4GB of RAM only (In Windows XP, Vista, Win7)

[edhan]

Yes. But with the current market in the software industry, it is still having 32-bit software. So moving up to 64-bit will definitely going to take a year or two before you can see the trend. Whether or not the 32-bit will retire be dependent on the software industry.