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Bom Dia from Brazil - Why Delphi for 64-bit Windows?

Posted by DavidI on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 in Blogs

I am here in Sao Paulo at the sold out Embarcadero Delphi Conference 2011. I just completed the opening keynote before more than 620 developers. During the keynote I talked about the many reasons why developers can and should now move to 64-bit Windows using DelphI XE2.

Why 64-bit Windows?

It's taken a long time to get to 64-bit computing. ACM Queue Magazine wrote a great article, "The Long Road to 64 bits" covering decades long move from 8, 16, 24, and 32 bit to 64-bit computing. For the last 30 years, applications have been running out of address space for programs and data. Looking back 3 decades we have seen:

Late 1980s – apps running out of address space

1990s – use of 64-bit processor for servers

2000s – 64-bit CPUs for desktop, but OS still supports 32-bit apps

2009 – Windows Server 2008 Release 2 is for x64/ia64 processors only

The Gartner Group, as reported in a Daily Tech article, said companies should start migrating all of their applications to 64-bit. The report also highlighted:

By 2014: 75% of corporate PCs will be Win64

Businesses are choosing 4GB+ for new PCs

Windows desktops will eventually be 64-bit only

What does 64-bit computing do for developers and their applications? 64-bit applications can support increased memory and data sizes. Applications are being asked to do more with video, images, blobs, audio, databases, and cloud storage. Applications are required to interface with 64-bit sub-systems and hardware. If you are doing server side programming developers need to use 64-bit for Web Services, Web Applications, DataSnap Servers, Database User Defined Functions (UDFs), and more.

For ISVs and Consultants this means you can reach more customers and increase your revenues. Enterprise developers can now support the 64-bit company initiatives and help your company be more competitive.

Delphi XE2 - One Thing

In the keynote I noted that when you think about Delphi XE2 you only have think about "one thing". With Delphi XE2 you can build 32-bit and 64-bit applications for Windows and Mac using

One language - Delphi

One toolset - IDE, compiler, debugger

One business application platform - FireMonkey

One run time library

One programming model - event driven programming with components

One Codebase!

You can get started today with Delphi XE2, part of RAD Studio XE2. We also have special offers that make it very attractive to purchase before the end of December.

About DavidI

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David Intersimone (known to many as David I.) is a passionate and innovative software industry veteran-often referred to as a developer icon-who extols and educates the world on Embarcadero developer tools. He shares his visions as an active member of the industry speaking circuit and is tapped as an expert source by the media. He is a long-standing champion of architects, developers and database professionals and works to ensure that their needs are folded into Embarcadero's strategic product plans. David holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, California.

Comments

A. Bouchez Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Is there a new update to build 64 it application for Mac?
My current XE2 installed version only create Windows 32 and 64 bit applications.
You can cross-compile only 32 bit Mac OS X applications.
David Heffernan Wednesday, 30 November 2011

64 bit for the Mac? I don't think so.
Ciprian Mustiata Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Remaining without address space is a bit unfair as description and a lot of applications would swap data in 80's because the memory limit (basically 64 KB stack and up-to 640 KB heap) were a bit limiting.
As of 32 bit the relation is a bit different: memory for most desktop applications is there. Delphi as a full blown IDE is using less than 100 MB of memory. last Visual Studio with a big codebase and with somewhat big plugins would take like 300-350MB. The issue with 64 bit memory (excluding you need to make a game where the memory usage starts to get closer to 2 GB mark) are applications: most applications are moving to 64 bit to support 64 bit as buzzword. Like Office 2010 have 64 bit version forcing component vendors to need to use 64 bit ActiveX or .Net.
I think tthat Delphi have other issues to solve but 64 bit achievements are handy, I must admit, yet entry price is huge, some funcitonality is half-baked (even is better than Delphi 8, 2005-2006 fiasco) components for database and web access. If I would want native code, 64 bit, I would take Visual Studio Express, and with zero dollars I can experiment the code or just to do a recompile of my old code. Those express versions support the possibility to upgrade when needed, not cause-of feature X (here 64 bit). I will be able to write Windows 8 applications just recompiling with MS SDKs and Express versions of the IDEs but still to develop in VS 2008 bought for main development.
vasa Saturday, 3 December 2011
vasa Saturday, 3 December 2011

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Tutto con il Pc Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Hey,

I have to say that this article it's very interesting. I will hope that one day we will have 64 bit for Mac.

Rubel
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