[OT] End-user uses for x86-64 (was: Why are still not at 64 bits)

[Tom Buskey]

On 2/16/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 11:35 -0500, Ben Scott wrote:




>   I've been asking the question, "How would an end-user significantly
> > benefit from x86-64?"


Define the end user as a home user with hobbies or std office
drone^H^H^H^H^Huser.


>
> >   Last night at Martha's, Matt Brodeur pointed out one thing that
> > could actually count: Full motion video editing.  This is something


That's one thing I've thought of.  Some of that is done with 32 bits also.

>
> >   Anyone got any other ideas?


Maybe someone will come up with a way to meaningfully tag and index photos
automatically and it will require 64 bits.


> > other things perused by organizations.  I'm talking about what *end
> > users* use their PCs for.  The people browsing MySpace, forwarding
> > their email chain letters, downloading illegal music with
> > Kanapsterwire, and looking at pron.)
> Ben,
>
> You seem to be defining every "end user" as "mom-and-pop-home", or "bank
> teller".


Yes, the people that drive buying a computer.  The mass market.


In the scientific and engineering world we have things like CAD packages


I'd argue that these users are a boundary case.  In years past, they bougth
super computers and workstations when mom-and pops and std office users
bought Apple ][s and the IBM PC.


Weather forecasting, global modeling, and even Matt's example of video
> are all lumped together into what most system vendors call "scientific
> and engineering", making up about 16% of the total system market.  The
> other 84% belongs to "commercial computing" (transaction based, small
> processes that live a short life).


And as 32 bit systems and concepts like Beowulf systems came along, the 84%
systems moved into the space the 16% was in.

I don't think the scientific computing space has as much influence on the
commercial computing hardware as the other way around.  Software might be a
different story.
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