64 Bit facts

While investigating facts about 64 Bit, I found out little known, but curios details like:

The number 2147483647 is the biggest possible number in 32-bit computing. In December 2014, "Gangnam Style" exceeded the 32-bit integer limit for view count, necessitating YouTube to upgrade the variable to a 64-bit integer

YouTube had to update their view count from 32-bit to 64-bit solely because Gangnam Style had too many views.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 25 of the best facts about 64 Bit I managed to collect.

1. PSY's music video 'Gangnam Style' exceeded the 32-bit integer limit (2,147,483,647) for YouTube view count, necessitating YouTube to upgrade the variable to a 64-bit integer limit at 9 quintilian (9,223,372,036,854,775,808).

2. Pinball was removed from Windows because it had a rounding error in the 64 bit version of XP. The code was written by an outside company and it had no comments whatsoever, so they decided to scrap it instead of spending time trying to figure out how the code worked.

3. Nintendo 64 software rarely took advantage of 64-bit data precision operations. N64 game-titles generally used faster (and more compact) 32-bit data-operations. 32-bit code executed faster and required less storage space (which was at a premium on the N64's cartridges).

4. Schizophrenic programmer Terry Davis designed a 64-bit operating system that he believes communicates with God.

5. PSY's Gangnam Style got so many views on YouTube that they had to upgrade the view count integer to 64 bits.

6. Ariane 5, a $7 Billion rocket crashed just due to a simple integer overflow (16-bit instead of 64-bit) , setting back European Space Agency by $400 Million and 4 years.

7. While 32 bit computers can max out at 4GB of RAM, 64 bit computers can theoretically max out at 16.8 million terabytes of RAM.

8. A 64-bit computer system could theoretically support up to 16 exabytes of memory - 17,179,869,184 gigabytes

9. At 15:30:08 UTC on 4 December 292,277,026,596 AD , time on 64-Bit Unix Systems will fail .

What is true about 64 bit?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

There is a 64 bit equivalent to the 32 bit Fast Inverse Square magic number - 0x5FE6EB50C7B537A9

3D Pinball was removed after Windows XP because the ball glitched in the 64-bit version and Microsoft developers couldn't figure out the game's source code. - source

64-bit systems will encounter their Y2K-like bug on Sunday, 4 December 292,277,026,596. - source

About Ariane 5, a heavy lift launch vehicle of ESA which costed 7 billion USD, was destroyed after 40 seconds of its launch, due to conversion of a 64-bit data to 16-bit

32-bit systems will only work for 22 more years, but 64-bit systems will work for 300 billion years. - source

On January 19, 2038 the Unix Timestamp will cease to work. Millions of applications will need to either adopt a new convention for time stamps or be migrated to 64-bit systems which will buy the timestamp a "bit" more time.

32-bit vs 64-bit (Saturday Morning with a Side of Tech episode one)

Pinball was removed from Windows because it had a rounding error in the 64 bit version of XP. The code was written by an outside company and it had no comments whatsoever, so they decided to remove it altogether instead of spending time trying to figure out how the code worked.

Gangnam Style has so many views it forced Google to change Youtube's storage from 32 bit to 64 bit ints to track them.

The reason why 32-bit Windows libraries are in SYSWow64 folder is that WoW64 stands for Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit. Also 64-bit libraries are in System32 folder for backward compatibility

On Sunday, 4 December 292,277,026,596 at exactly 15:30:08 UTC, 64-bit versions of the Unix time stamp will cease to work.