CPU Info

[Leary22]

Guys sorry .. i am going for my Comptia Certification and i was wondering about these since i can not for sure see these in my book i am studying... Can some one help me with this... i am trying to find out what CPUs are 64 bit compatible and 32 bit compatible.

[awaj]

my understanding is that Intels been doing 64 bit compatibility for a while, so if it's Intel and gotten in something like that last 5 yrs, you can assume it's 64 bit compatibility (don't quote me on the exact time...). If it is AMD, there is one way to know. There are Dual Core (2 cores, which is only for 32) and there is Quad Core (4 cores, which make it useable by 64 bit operating systems)

[pangea33]

Isn't that certification for hardware technicians? You're likely to get some useful information from here and other forums, but it would be pretty sketchy for a certification test to cover stuff that's not even in the book.

I'm no hardware expert but I think it might be best to use caution when making assumptions about cpu architecture based on manufacture date. Intel Core Duo processors are 32-bit and the Core 2 Duo processors are 64-bit. You could get them both way more recently than 5 years ago.

[awaj]

I'm just saying that I was told that Intel's been incorporating 64 bit when there was only 32 bit operating systems. It makes no different to a 32 bit operating system if a computer can run 64 bit operating systems. (it makes a big difference the other way around though...) I don't know when exactly the change was made.

[pangea33]

Fair enough. I was just throwing in my two cents and wasn't trying to give you static, awaj. I guess mainly I was more surprised by the thought that a description of hardware specifications wouldn't be included in a study guide for a certification related to hardware.

[jlreich]

What certification? A+?

Any questions dealing with this should be fairly obvious in the information given and/or in the possible answers. Like Intel's Itanium CPUs are 64bit only, while Penitum IIIs are 32bit only.

If you want to know just for the sake of knowing you should be able to find an historical timeline on both Intel and AMDs website that should include 64bit capabilities. Or Wikipedia would probably have something like that as well.