Microsoft Extends SQL Server 64-Bit Support With New Service Pack

A new service pack for SQL Server 2000 enables the database to take advantage of AMD64 chips as well as Intel's Itanium CPUs. SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition already supported Itanium chips.

Users running SP4 on Windows Server 2003 64X Edition in what Microsoft calls Windows on Windows emulation or WOW64, will realize some 64-bit benefits, a spokeswoman said.

With this service pack, the database gets access to a full four gigabytes of RAM, rather than sharing it with the operating system, the spokeswoman said.

While there might be a slight performance hit from the emulation, it could be more-than overcome by the faster underlying platform, one solution provider said.

The upcoming SQL Server 2005, code-named Yukon, will offer native 64-bit support. It is still expected by year's end, the spokeswoman said.Frank Cullen, principle at Blackstone & Cullen, an Atlanta-based Microsoft solution provider, said most of his customers are moving their databases to 64-bit servers within the next two years. "We're already running betas of Yukon's DTS [data transformation services] stuff and it's working great," he said.

Partners and customers can download Service Pack 4 now from this http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2000/sp4.asp Microsoft Web site.

In other Microsoft news, the company posted a beta of Windows Server 2003 R2, at this site for public download.