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32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yetPosted Jun 1, 2012 18:02 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304)In reply to: 32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet by BenHutchings Parent article: Moving on
I'm not sure you can describe x86 as 'succeeded by' x86-64, really: there are still new designs being released which have only 32-bit x86 support (hello, Atom).
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32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 2, 2012 5:58 UTC (Sat) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]
Indeed. I was an amd64 early adopter, and ia32 (kernel, anyway) really is legacy in some ways, but my only full computer purchase (I usually upgrade a piece at a time) this century was a gen-1.5 32-bit-only atom-based netbook, Acer Aspire One, 150L (L for Linux, I had to order it imported from Canada, but no way was I going to be an eXPrivacy statistic, even if I did buy it with the express intent of immediately sticking Gentoo on it) -- before they killed things with the all but Linux incompatible outsourced graphics.
It's still going strong! One of the first things I did was add a 1-gig stick of RAM to it, it's one of the first netbooks with a regular SATA interface and I chose the 120 gig "rotating rust" drive, but I still plan to upgrade that to either 128/256 gig SSD or 500 gig "rotating rust" at some point. I just replaced the battery for the second time a few weeks ago.
As TFA mentions, we /are/ talking Debian cycles, here, but still. If it weren't for netbooks, and likely x86 based touchpads at some point, x86 /was/ headed toward footnote territory, but that gave it a new lease on life and now I expect it to be with us for some time.
Meanwhile, not directly related but food for thought: A lot of touch-screen based retail cash registers are P4 or similar based, now, often running MS-DOS with memory extenders and TSR-based networking and touch-input stacks. Either android or more traditional linux could eventually take that, on either x86-32 or arm.
32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 4, 2012 12:57 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Quite. In an ideal world I'd like for Atom to die and be replaced by ARM. Unfortunately that now apparently means that it would also come with a free signed boot that boots only Windows and that you can't override :(
32-bit x86 will be relevant for some time yet Posted Jun 6, 2012 19:47 UTC (Wed) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]
There's not only Intel's Atom, but also some embeded x86 SoC manufacturers like DM&P Electronics:
http://www.dmp.com.tw/
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