Enterprises See 32-Bit Compatibility As Imperative For 64-Bit Migration

—Database will be the early ‘killer application’ for 64-bit in recent survey commissioned by AMD—

Sunnyvale, Calif -- 8/18/2003 -- – A new research study commissioned by AMD (NYSE: AMD) and conducted by Gartner Custom Research, a division of Gartner, Inc., concludes that as enterprises migrate to 64-bit computing, having a platform that supports both 32-bit and 64-bit applications will be critical to their migration strategy.*

Gartner Custom Research conducted both qualitative and quantitative interviews with IT managers from government, healthcare, financial, and other enterprises of all sizes who were key decision-makers regarding their respective company’s computing platforms. Respondents were surveyed on their plans on migrating from 32-bit to 64-bit computing, their perceptions of 64-bit computing and what applications will drive their adoption of it.

With regard to the benefits of 64-bit computing, the respondents said the primary benefit of 64-bit computing is increased performance through the ability to access more memory. Respondents see 64-bit computing as enabling faster queries and processing for large database applications as well as facilitating faster financial transactions. Most respondents agreed that 64-bit migration will start with large, core database servers and transaction-based applications.

More than 80 percent of the respondents stated that the ability to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications while migrating to 64-bit is somewhat or extremely important. More than 50 percent of the respondents said that migration cannot occur without 32- and 64-bit capability. Not having backward compatibility to 32-bit was seen as a definitive barrier to 64-bit computing by many of the respondents.

“The results of Gartner’s survey confirm what we continue to hear from our customers – they need an industry-standard 64-bit solution that provides protection for their substantial investment in 32-bit infrastructure,” said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of AMD’s Microprocessor Business Unit. “Migration to 64-bit will happen at the customer’s own pace, which is why the customer-centric AMD Opteron™ processor gives enterprises leading-edge 32-bit performance for their existing applications and the 64-bit computing power to meet their growing database and business process application needs.”

“The Microsoft® WOW64 (Windows® on Windows) subsystem will allow most 32-bit applications to launch seamlessly on 64-bit Windows,” said Brian Marr, Windows product manager. “WOW64 is designed to provide interoperability and great performance on AMD64 processors across the 32/64-bit boundaries. As customers migrate to 64-bit Windows XP and Windows Server, they will have a code base that will support both 32- and 64-bit applications.”

* Gartner Custom Research survey results may differ from the published research position of Gartner, Inc.

About AMD
Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Standard & Poor’s 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and silicon-based solutions for communications and networking applications.

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