ramollari
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Hey does anyone know if WindowsXP will run on the new AMD 64bit processors? After all, are AMD processors compatible with pentium (i.e. x86 processors)?
AMD's 64-bit processors are backwards compatible:ramollari said:Hey does anyone know if WindowsXP will run on the new AMD 64bit processors? After all, are AMD processors compatible with pentium (i.e. x86 processors)?
hitssquad said:AMD's 64-bit processors are backwards compatible:
- AMD64 represents a break with AMD's past behavior of following Intel's standards, but follows Intel's earlier behavior of extending the x86 architecture, from the 16-bit 8086 to the 32-bit 80386 and beyond, without ever removing backwards compatibility. The AMD64 architecture extends the 32-bit x86 architecture (IA-32) by adding 64-bit registers, with full 32-bit and 16-bit compatibility modes for earlier software.
This is why AMD managed to outmaneuver Intel in the 64-bit arena. Intel's 64 bit offering, the Itanium, is not backwards compatible with 32-bit operating systems.