14 DAY TRIAL // Google is hard at work developing a 64-bit version of its open-source browser for Windows. The Mountain View-search giant indicated that work was in progress but delivered no specific availability deadline so far. According to Chromium developers Mads Sig Ager, a 64-bit (x64) flavor of Google Chrome will be offered to Windows users “soon.” There’s no telling just what the period of time “soon” can be translated into, but testers can already run 64-bit Chrome.
At the end of the past week, Google offered the first downloads of its true 64-bit version of Chrome, tailored to the Linux open-source platform. The Mountain View is focusing on adapting x64 Chrome to Linux and Mac OS X first, and only afterwards to Windows. According to Google, the heavy lifting is focused on porting the underlining V8 JavaScript engine to 64-bit platforms.
“V8 does not yet compile in 64-bit mode on Windows. We have focused on making the 64-bit version of V8 work on Linux and Mac at first. We are currently working on making the 64-bit version compile on Windows as well. We should hopefully have that done soon,” Ager stated when x64 Chrome for Linux was launched.
Google is currently offering multiple releases of Chrome for Windows, including Chrome 4.0.202.0 through the developer channel, Build 3.0.195.6 via the Beta channel, and 2.0.172.43, the stable version. Microsoft is already offering a 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, but operating systems such as Windows 7 64-bit are still pushing the 32-bit (x86) flavor of IE8 to the front as the default browser, with the x64 variant tucked away out of sight.
Users test driving 64-bit Chrome for Linux need to know that development has so far not been about performance. “We have focused on making the 64-bit version complete, so there is still some performance tuning to be done. Currently, the performance of the 64-bit version is pretty close to the performance of the 32-bit version when Chrome 2 stable was released,” Ager added.
The latest release of Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here.
The true 64-bit version of Google Chrome can be tested on Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10 from here.