Coming soon: 64-bit Win2K beta

Microsoft will release the first beta of its 64-bit version of Windows 2000 next quarter, company officials said.

The final version will ship concurrently with the availability of Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor when it ships later in the year.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to ship Windows Millennium Edition, the last upgrade base on the current Win 9.X code base, this summer.

The Consumer NT version - the first consumer version based on NT code - is scheduled for release in March 2001, sources said.

A detailed report can be found at www.techweb.com.