Keynotes
The presentation segment of the launch was MC'd by Charlie Brown, who presents a computer show on Melbourne FM radio. In his introduction he noted the increased use of computing for entertainment usage, which 32bit would not be enough for.
AMD Country Manager, John Robinson talked about where AMD is heading. The evolution of CPUs from 286 and up and of the perfect storm that has been the past few years,64bit being something new for desktop computing. He also mentioned that AMD's customers have asked for an 'industry standard' for 64bit and that has been what AMD has delivered. Additionally, 64bit computing can help build imaginations.
64 bit computing hardware requires 64bit operating system and software applications. Microsoft's Ian Walker, OEM Division, Microsoft Australia; discussed the development cycle and schedule for the upcoming 64 bit editions of Microsoft Windows, Particularly the 64bit edition of Windows XP Professional.
As the audience he was addressing was very up to date on the latest news about these releases, his comments regarding XP-64 was that Microsoft was "very close behind !, but not too far behind" in terms of bringing their OS's to market to support AMD's new processor family. Ian Walker and the audience tried to contain their laughter at the reasoning behind the delay.
Specific mentioned features of XP-64 would include addressing up to 10TB of RAM. Beta 1 available via MSDN at time of writing and Final build around Feb-Mar 2004.
Next up was Michael Athrope, Technical Manager for AMD Australia. This address highlighted the changes to the computing industry over recent times and what the current mix of users and uses is at the moment:
- Broadband use has tripled.
- 2/3rds of uses are straining their systems.
- 1/4 to 2/3s are for content creation.
- 80% play games.
- Increase from 7 million to 70 million games
