32-bit and 64-bit explained

Will this 32-bit software run on my 64-bit operating system? or

Will this 64-bit software run on my computer?

If you've asked these questions then this tutorial should help you to understand the concepts of 32-bit and 64-bit computing. We'll look at your computer system as three parts: the hardware, the operating system and the application programs. At the end we'll look at some of the common questions people have.

32-bit versus 64-bit

As the number of bits increases there are two important benefits.

• More bits means that data can be processed in larger chunks which also means more accurately.
• More bits means our system can point to or address a larger number of locations in physical memory.

32-bit systems were once desired because they could address (point to) 4 Gigabytes (GB) of memory in one go. Some modern applications require more than 4 GB of memory to complete their tasks so 64-bit systems are now becoming more attractive because they can potentially address up to 4 billion times that many locations.

Since 1995, when Windows 95 was introduced with support for 32-bit applications, most of the software and operating system code has been 32-bit compatible.

Here is the problem, while most of the software available today is 32-bit, the processors we buy are almost all 64-bit.

So how long will the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit systems take?

The main issue is that your computer works from the hardware such as the processor (or CPU, as it is called), through the operating system (OS), to the highest level which is your applications. So the computer hardware is designed first, the matching operating systems are developed, and finally the applications appear.

We can look back at the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit Windows on 32-bit processors. It took 10 years (from 1985 to 1995) to get a 32-bit operating system and even now, more than 15 years later, there are many people still using 16-bit Windows applications on older versions of Windows.

The hardware and software vendors learnt from the previous transition, so the new operating systems have been released at the same time as the new processors. The problem this time is that there haven't been enough 64-bit applications. Ten years after the PC's first 64-bit processors, installs of 64-bit Windows are only now exceeding those of 32-bit Windows. Further evidence of this inertia is that you are probably reading this tutorial because you are looking to install your first 64-bit software.

Your computer system in three parts

Now we'll look at those three components of your system. In simple terms they are three layers with the processor or CPU as the central or lowest layer and the application as the outermost or highest layer as shown below:

To run a 64-bit application you need support from all lower levels: the 64-bit OS and the 64-bit CPU.

To run a 64-bit operating system you need support from the lower level: the 64-bit CPU.

This simplification will be enough for us to look what happens when we mix the 32-bit and 64-bit parts. But if you want to understand the issue more deeply then you will also need to consider the hardware that supports the CPU and the device drivers that allow the OS and the applications to interface with the system hardware.

What 32-bit and 64-bit combinations are compatible and will work together?

This is where we get to the practicalities and can start answering common questions.

The general rule is that 32-bit will run on a lower level 64-bit component but 64-bit does not run on a lower level 32-bit component:

• A 32-bit OS will run on a 32-bit or 64-bit processor without any problem.
• A 32-bit application will run on any combination of OS and processor
• But 64-bit application will only run on a 64-bit OS and a 64-bit OS will only run on a 64-bit processor.

This table illustrates the same rule:

Table 1: What is compatible between 32-bit and 64-bit parts of the system

	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Application Program	32-bit	64-bit	32/64-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit
Operating System (OS)	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit	64-bit
Processor (CPU)	32-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	64-bit	64-bit

The main reason that 32-bit will always run on 64-bit is that the 64-bit components have been designed to work that way. So the newer 64-bit systems are backward-compatible with the 32-bit systems (which is the main reason most of us haven't moved to 64-bit software).

An example of backward compatibility is Windows 64-bit. It has software called WOW64 that provides compatibility by emulating a 32-bit system. See the article How Windows 7 / Vista 64 Support 32-bit Applications if you want to know more. One important point that is made in that article is that it is not possible to install a 32-bit device driver on a 64-bit operating system. This is because device drivers run in parallel to the operating system. The emulation is done at the operating system level so it is available to the higher layer, the application, but it is not available to the device driver which runs on the same level.

Hardware virtualization is the exception to the rule

Another question many people have is whether a 32-bit system can run 64-bit software. As more people are looking to use 64-bit Windows they are wanting to try it out on their existing systems. So we are getting more questions about whether they can run it on their 32-bit processor or under their 32-bit OS.

Following the general rule, we would expect that you cannot run 64-bit software on a 32-bit system. Except that there is one exception called virtualization.

Virtualization creates a virtual system within the actual system. Virtualization can be achieved in hardware or software but it works best if the virtual machine is created in the system hardware. The guest operating system is not aware that there is a host operating system already running. This is the way that a 64-bit operating system can think that it is running on 64-bit hardware without being aware that there is a 32-bit operating system in the mix.

The table below illustrates the result. Provided that the virtual machine can actually be created and isolated by the host operating system then the host OS is effectively removed from the equation so I've grayed it out. We can now apply the general rules for a non-virtualized system to the three remaining layers.

Table 2: What is compatible between different parts of a virtualized system

	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Application Program	32-bit	64-bit	32/64-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit
Guest Operating System	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	32-bit	64-bit	64-bit
Host Operating System	32-bit	32-bit	32-bit	32/64-bit	32/64-bit	32/64-bit
Processor (CPU)	32-bit	32-bit	32-bit	64-bit	64-bit	64-bit

Before you hurry away to try running 64-bit in a virtual machine, you must check that your computer BIOS supports hardware virtualization. If it does not then hardware virtualization will not work even if the CPU does support it.
 

Print Only The Part(s) Of A Web Page That You Wish

With most web sites now carrying loads of ads, pictures, banners, and other assorted content in addition to the actual text of each page, printing out a web page can be difficult.  Printers don't always print multi-item pages correctly, especially if they're quite wide, and printing out those photos and banners wastes ink.  

Some sites, of course, offer a "print this page" option which strips out much of the unnecessary content.  But still, there are often adverts left in the printout.

If you've had this problem in the past, you probably solve it the same way I do.  Copy and paste individual paragraphs from the web browser into Word or Notepad, and print from there.  But you don't have to do that any more, because there's a much more sophistcated option.

Just head to www.printwhatyoulike.com and, on the home page, enter the address of the page that you want to print.  The service is completely free, and you don't have to register or log in.  Once you've entered the URL, your chosen web page will appear on screen, with the PWYL menu to the left.  You can now click around the loaded web page and highlight, or delete altogether, individual components on the page.  Which, for those of you who know HTML, means any "div" area.  

Once you've collected together all the areas that you want to print, or removed those that you don't, just hit the Print button and you're done.

PrintWhatYouLike is a great idea that will save you time and money.  It's free, and there's nothing to download or install either.  A winner, I reckon.

Get Email Etiquette Right

Five Ways To...

Get Email Etiquette Right

THIS ONE must have come as a surprise to you, but is taken seriously in the corporate world: Your boss told you to ‘grow up’ because you used ‘:p’ in an email. Indeed, email etiquette is a big deal, and you will end up hurting your own interest if you don’t follow its rules. Anand Altekar lists a few things you need to keep in mind

1 Plan the Email

 

You shouldn’t put anything in an email that you wouldn’t put on a postcard. “A client usually signs a confidentiality agreement when engaging a company. One should always remember that e-mails are company property and can be used in a court of law,” says Utkarsh Sanghvi, senior tax professional. Email can be forwarded; an unwanted party may see what you have written. So avoid writing personal emails from your company email ID.

 

2 Mind your Language

 

“People have forgotten basic letterwriting skills. SMS language and writing the entire mail in capital letters is common. Some people also write the entire mail in the subject line,” says Sandhya Sadananda, director, Windchimes Communications. Remember, when you write using capital letters, it looks as if you are shouting. “Most emails don’t have a proper greeting”, adds Sadananda. Make sure your mail includes a courteous greeting and closing and always address your contact with the appropriate level of formality.

 

3 Check CCs and BCCs

Use blind copy (BCC) only when sending the email to a large number of recipients. Copy (CC) only people directly involved. Also, be sparing with the “reply all” button. “I usually get annoyed to open an e-mail that says only ‘I agree’. I use the ‘reply all’ button only when I have something to add” says Alap Mehra, deputy manager Acturial, Bajaj Allianz.

 

4  Reply Quickly, be Brief

Reply to important messages quickly. If you receive an emotionally charged message, take a minute to think it through and then reply. Try to concentrate on one subject per message. An email longer than necessary is quite frustrating. No one likes to scroll through endless pages of replies to understand a discussion, so try to summarise long discussions.

 

5  Don’t Run, Don’t Hide

 

“I think people should not use e-mail to cover up their mistakes. Work issues which put emotional pressure, should not be discussed over email. I prefer talking to the person directly,” says Gagan Agarwal, manager, indirect taxation, Essar Group. Faceto-face communication conveys emotions in a much better way.

One Man s War Against Facebook on the European Front

Max Scherms is a 24-year-old law student from Vienna who is hell-bent on
changing the rules Facebook plays by. As a visiting student in
California last semester, he was puzzled by a class visit from a
Facebook representative, whose ideas of European privacy laws were very
different than Scherms's own understanding. Since then, he's filed 22
complaints against Facebook Ireland Limited, the subsidiary that
oversees European users of the social network, for everything from
poking to tagging to facial recognition. He's also started a group
called Europe Versus Facebook, which fights for users to obtain more
power over their own information. For example, did you know that the
Facebook "Like" button gathers user information, not just every time you
click it, but every time you end up on a page that contains the button
at all? That cookie then associates the page with all the others you've
visited over the last three months.

"The first problem is the lack of transparency," Scherms told us via
e-mail today. "The second problem is the lack of user control. We
deposit our data at Facebook, but we cannot to efficiently control what
is happening to them." Even if you're deleting things from your profile,
they're still keeping the information, he contends, and so you're
"actually just hiding it from yourself."

Although his movement is based in Europe, Scherms says that if he's
successful, Facebook will be forced to implement changes worldwide, "so
it is very likely that U.S. residents will get more rights too." Scherms
also has an eye on Google+, although he has no legal rights to file
complaints against them in Europe.

Like most twentysomethings, though, Scherms is also insistent that he's
a fan of the services provided. "I think that social networking is a
pretty cool thing, so I don't see why I should limit myself just because
Facebook is not following the laws," he said. Plus, he added, "Facebook
has a monopoly on our friends."

Buy any linux CD / DVD

If you want to buy any CD/DVD for Open Source,
go and buy it from the following link


http://linuxplate.in/ref/chiragkgohel

Tech that will Replace Credit Cards

Tech that will Replace Credit Cards 

NFC,or near-field communication,is a variant of RFID,or radio frequency identification.It is an ultra short-range wireless technology that allows communication and data exchange between two devices held in tight proximity - about 4 cm apart.

WHAT IS NFC 

NFC,or near-field communication,is a variant of RFID,or radio frequency identification.It is an ultra shortrange wireless technology that allows communication and data exchange between two devices held in tight proximity - about 4 cm apart.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM BLUETOOTH 

Bluetooth is also a short-range high frequency wireless technology but one that allows interaction between communication devices as much as 10 meters apart.

WHAT MAKES NFC SPECIAL 

NFC-enabled smartphones have the potential to replace credit cards.This is because NFC phones pack a smart chip - a complex 80-character code that is really hard to crack.Such a device can safely store confidential credit card details and be handy for purchases on the go.Frost & Sullivan predicts the technology will revolutionise e-commerce and drive over $150 billion worth of transactions by 2015,bulk of which is expected to be powered by NFC phones.

WHAT ELSE CAN THE TECHNOLOGY DO 

NFC can be deployed in ticketing services,rural banking,interactive and targeted advertising,healthcare,hospitality,libraries and pharmacies.In fact,an NFC phone could become the single-key to access to your car,home and office.

HOW DO NFC TRANSACTIONS WORK 

Any device,a cellphone,a camera or a watch,can be equipped with an NFC initiator',which is simply an antenna that can store data.If the device is an NFC smartphone,the 'initiator' and 'target' (an NFC reader) need to be up close for data exchange to happen.The `reader' is attached to a point-of-sale (PoS) terminal or cash-register in a retail store that accepts NFC payments.A simple wave of the phone can pay for a purchase.Alternatively,two NFC phones can be tapped lightly to exchange business cards.

WILL NFC BE A DRAIN ON BATTERY LIFE 

Geeks claim that in standby mode,a well-designed NFC solution does not consume any power.And since transactions happen in seconds,the power drain is not huge.

ARE NFC-ADOPTION LEVELS GROWING 

Globally,NFC adoption is picking up via smartphones.RIM,Nokia,Samsung and HTC have unveiled NFC smartphones.Apple iPhone5 is tipped to support NFC too.Google Wallet -- a mobile payments technology that can be downloaded on some US mobile networks -- is growing the NFC ecosystem.Payment trials have also begun in Australia,Singapore and China.

HAS NFC ARRIVED IN INDIA 

The technology is still in its infancy here.As of now,the Reserve Bank does not recognise NFC mobile payment transactions and PoS terminals accepting NFC payments don't exist.But NFC-enabled phones like BlackBerry's Touch Bold 9900 and Curve 9360,Samsung's Nexus S and Galaxy S II and Nokia's C7,700,701 and 600 are available.For NFC to take off,RBI has to frame norms and banks,carriers,creditcard companies,apps developers and PoS terminal makers have to team up.But awareness levels are growing and NFC is making some waves in entertainment.ShahRukh Khanstarrer Ra.One was the first movie to be marketed by Nokia using NFC technology.Armed with an NFC phone,you can download the movie content by merely tapping the device on a NFC-tagged movie poster at a Nokia priority outlet or a partner multiplex.

Android Development

http://www.vogella.de/articles/Android/article.html

ISRO builds India''s fastest supercomputer SAGA-220

ISRO builds India''s fastest supercomputer SAGA-220

Indian Space Research Organisation has built a supercomputer, which is to be India’s fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance of 220 TeraFLOPS (220 Trillion Floating Point Operations per second).

The supercomputer “SAGA-220″, built by the Satish Dhawan Supercomputing Facility located at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram at a cost of about Rs 14 crore was inaugurated by K Radhakrishnan, Chairman ISRO at VSSC today, ISRO said in a statement.

The new Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) based supercomputer, “SAGA-220″ (Supercomputer for Aerospace with GPU Architecture-220 TeraFLOPS) is being used by space scientists for solving complex aerospace problems.

“SAGA-220” is fully designed and built by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre using commercially available hardware, open source software components and in house developments.

The system uses 400 NVIDIA Tesla 2070 GPUs and 400 Intel Quad Core Xeon CPUs supplied by WIPRO with a high speed interconnect.

With each GPU and CPU providing a performance of 500 GigaFLOPS and 50 GigaFLOPS respectively, the theoretical peak performance of the system amounts to 220 TeraFLOPS, the statement said.

The present GPU system offers significant advantage over the conventional CPU based system in terms of cost, power and space requirements, it said.

The system is environmentally green and consumes a power of only 150 KW. This system can also be easily scaled to many PetaFLOPS (1000 TeraFLOPS).

How to get free .in Domain Name

Google India, in partnership with ICICI Bank and HostGator (the web hosting company), has launched a new program called India Get Online where they make it easy for you to setup a website for your business for free.

As part of the deal, you get a free .in web domain (provided it is available) and free web hosting for one year. The .in domain will registered to you while Hostgator will manage the website hosting* though you can move the site to any other web host for free.

Such free offers are always a goldmine for spammers but Google India has made it mandatory for businesses to enter their Permanent Account Number (PAN) or Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) at the time of registration. Since these numbers are unique for every individual / business, you can’t avail it more than once.

Your website will be integrated with Google Apps so you also get access to other Google products like Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Docs and more. You also get Google Adwords coupons worth INR 2.5k for free to help you advertise your website on Google and AdSense network sites.

[*] If you have purchased a web domain already, you can also use Google App Engine to host your website online for free.

You can visit vijashiviinternational.in or khoslaprinters.in to get an idea of how sites created with the “India Get Online” look like. There’s a set of readymade web templates, pick one that matches your business profile, you can customize the text and pictures of the pages and your site is good to go.

Google hasn’t exactly specified the amount that businesses will have to pay to renew their website registration and hosting after one year except saying that it will be a “discounted fee.”

Microsoft had a offered a similar service in India called Office Live for Small Businesses but they recently discontinued it in favor of Office 365 which is less about website hosting but more about running your business in the cloud.