32 bit drivers on a 64 bit OS
- Thread starter K.I.L.E.R
- Start date
That's very strange, since it's quite possible to mix 32-bit and 64-bit apps... Why draw a line at drivers? 
That's just dumb! There's tons of stuff that won't ever get 64-bit drivers, and don't even need it; printers, UPSes, joysticks, misc. USB devices etc etc...
That's just dumb! There's tons of stuff that won't ever get 64-bit drivers, and don't even need it; printers, UPSes, joysticks, misc. USB devices etc etc...
Here's my take:
The kernel is 64bit, so anything close to it need be too.
The alternative would be to have more entry points or a second kernel somehow, but that would prolly leads to lots of problems.
So anything close to the 64bit kernel needs be 64bit, and there's an application layer/lib that handles old 32bits progs, which just translate API calls into the new format.
The kernel is 64bit, so anything close to it need be too.
The alternative would be to have more entry points or a second kernel somehow, but that would prolly leads to lots of problems.
So anything close to the 64bit kernel needs be 64bit, and there's an application layer/lib that handles old 32bits progs, which just translate API calls into the new format.
So why can't that API handle 32-bit drivers also?
I guess it would be possible if MS really wanted to, but on the other hand the work needed to support that might be a lot more than it's worth, and I guess the kernel might get a good deal more overhead.
Getting hardware vendors to release 64bit drivers for their hardware is a lot easier than getting software vendors to release 64bit versions of their applications, and the absolute hardest thing is to get regular users to upgrade their entire application collection to 64bit, which of course is not going to happen, not even for the technology freaks among us. So MS have every reason to get 32bit applications working if they want to sell their OS. There's not nearly as a big an incentive to support 32bit drivers.
Getting hardware vendors to release 64bit drivers for their hardware is a lot easier than getting software vendors to release 64bit versions of their applications, and the absolute hardest thing is to get regular users to upgrade their entire application collection to 64bit, which of course is not going to happen, not even for the technology freaks among us. So MS have every reason to get 32bit applications working if they want to sell their OS. There's not nearly as a big an incentive to support 32bit drivers.
IIRC Windows NT's driver model has been 64 bits clean for ages, so it's easy to make a 64 bits driver from a 32 bits one (at least theoretically, in reality there are other problems). Applications, however, are much more sloppy. Many programs just mixes pointers and ints randomly, which won't work under 64 bits mode.
