32-bits is DEAD!

Arm has announced that all of its Cortex-A CPUs will soon be 64-bit only, with no 32-bit compatibility. This is a watershed moment, no 32-bit operating systems and no 32-bit apps. Is this a sad day or a great moment?




#garyexplains

[davesemmelink]

I can remember when Intel's 4 bit 4004 "CPU on a chip" came out and blew all our minds. When they released the 8 bit 8008 I thought "Now they're just showing off..."

[GaryExplains]

Errata: There is a typo on one of my slides. 2013 should be 2003. The AMD Opteron came out in spring 2003, the Athlon 64 in the autumn of the same year.

[WorBlux]

Risc-V Still has 16 bit compressed instructions, and unlike Thumb, doesn't require a mode switch within the processor.

[arnone]

I'm devastated I'm no longer restricted to 4GB of RAM 😭😭😭

[truboxl]

I think by 2038 then 32bit will be truly dead

[magburner]

I still have not come to terms with the loss of 16-bit computing. Now this.. Oh my.

[juzujuzu]

I'm still running 32bit Linux on my old 32bit computers, that are still capable for many sorts of tasks.

[techydude]

I’m glad you added the ‘exception’ for embedded applications, albeit a rather briefly noted exception given the extraordinary spread of embedded microcontrollers in the past decade of the rise of IoT. The demise of 8bit microcontrollers has been predicted for 20 years, still hasn’t happened. 16bit MCUs were somewhat rarer, with MCUs targeting embedded applications jumping instead to 32bits. Most embedded applications will never need 64bits, but more to the point, are often subject to economic pressures where SoC silicon die size becomes relevant to the cost of the final product, so would be disadvantageous if lumbered with an un-used 64-bit capability. Of course, s/w dev tools support for 32bits given this desertion of support from the application devs for 64-bit only will be “interesting”; in the transitions from 8 to 16, and 16 to 32, embedded developers have often been second class citizens in the s/w dev tools quality, and it’s hard not to see that paradigm continuing afresh with this 64-bit “chauvinism” ;-)

[wakzyon]

anybody still remember using the PAE switch on servers to allow Windows to see more memory :D

[zeddie]

Well Gaben better get going with releasing 64bit client of Steam.

[An.Individual]

I also worked for DEC in 1990. I recall the boss of DEC was Ken Olsen who famously said that we should carry on building VAX and Alpha because PCs would never catch on 😀

[venkateshhariharan]

hidden secret in the 32bit binary number is DEADBEEF lol you're amazing bro

[GeekIWG]

I imagine for me the only issue I'll run into when 32bit support is lost on PCs and Ubuntu is with older 32bit games

[Ivan-prku]

The x86-64 will always be there to support older 32-bit code, simply because this ISA is strictly an inclusive extension of the x86 (i686), by using modified Physical Address Extension, featured way back in the Pentium Pro that enabled 36-bit address range.
That's why all x86-64 OS do require PAE support from the host CPU.

[ChristianKoehler]

Strangely X86 even supports not just one, but two distinct 16 bit modes (the original 8086 'real mode' and 286 'protected mode') at the OS level to this date.

I wonder how long it will take them to get rid of that.

[RobBCactive]

Opteron was shown on a slide as 2013. I had Athlon X2 64bit in 2007 so I think 2003 was meant.

[genrabbit]

Out of curiosity; if the x86 families of chips drops the 32bit part and goes all 64bit, does that mean that then everyone can start making x86_64 chips? (IF AMD allows it as they made the 64bit instruction set?). And Intels part of it is no longer present

[torb-no]

Speaking of 64-bit ARM, I think you would be the perfect person to make a video explaining Fujitsu's A64FX ARM SoC developed for their Japanese K super computer. It has an architecture that's quite different from other SoCs I've seen.

[DanCreaMundos]

I found the DEADBEEF quite fun lol interesting video

[RoguishlyHandsome]

Now to release 128-bits hardware so that we can happily perpetuate having two architectures.