14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will start from next month the distribution of the Windows XP Professional 64-bit, and of the Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003.
Regarding Windows Server 2003 SP1, it seems that the 1830 build was considered good enough to be released after 18 months of tests.
Service Pack 1 has been announced by Microsoft even since the release of the Windows Server 2003 which convinced many companies to turn to other operating systems.
Both Windows XP operating system and SP1 for the Windows Server 2003 have been even more expected since AMD launched and Intel announced the 64 bit processors for end-users.
In this moment, the processors benefiting from the 64 bit technology are AMD's Athlon64 and Opteron and Intel's Xeon Nocona, launched last month.
One of the main advantages brought by the 64 bit technology is that the 32 bit applications will run with 20% faster on 64-bit platforms.
At the middle of March, Microsoft announced that it plans to offer 64 bit versions for several applications like: SQL Server, Exchange, Commerce Server, Microsoft Operations Manager, and Virtual Server. In this moment, SQL Server 2000 is the only Microsoft product for 64-bit platforms.
According to Microsoft' official statements, in the next 21 months, 64 bit versions will be released for 12 programs. For 2005 the following programs were announced: Commerce Server, Host Integration Server 2005, Virtual Server 2005 with Service Pack 1 and Virtual PC 2004 with SP2.