Jim Allchin, group vice president of Microsoft's Platfroms Group, confirmed on Tuesday that the 64-bit edition of Windows Xp Professional will ship "within four weeks". The software targets desktop Pentium processors as well as the Xeon platform and will accelerate native 64-bit applications by at least 35 percent, if compared to their 32-bit counterparts, Allchin said.

"Some 32-bit applications could gain as much as 30 percent speed under th enew operating system but Microsoft generally expects generally "five percent more or less performance with 32-bit applications. "x64 is a very seamless transition," Allchin said.

In contrast to some mixed messages in the past, Microsoft will continue to support Intel's Itanium with 64-bit Windows versions, according to Allchin. He conceded that the 64-bit desktop Windows came down a long road, but Microsoft now intends to follow Intel's call to quickly transition servers, workstations and desktops to 64-bit: "Its time. Get your code ready and convert your apps now," he told the developer crowd. (THG)