Here are a couple of links re: 64 bit OS and performance benefits. Cakewalk has problems doing this in Windows if you look at reports about Sonar closely, but they initially reported
a 30% performance bump.
http://digitalproducer.digitalmedian...e.jsp?id=30309
http://www.cakewalk.com/x64/whitepaper.asp
ALSO SIGNIFICANT:
1.)
Kontakt 64 bit Processing--Native Instruments have been working on a Kontakt update (3.5) that will take advantage of a 64bit OS, primarily so it can address large amounts of memory. NI discusses this freely in its website and forum, and indicates that the update will be released free to current owners of Kontakt 3. This is huge, and it's what sampler users have been hoping for for a long time--to be able to load large blocks of sample data into instantly accessible, pop and click free RAM, rather than be constrained by disk streaming. Samplers are supposed to be one particularly powerful example of where a 64bit OS really delivers. It would be great to be able to use Kontakt at this level as a plug-in, but the host would have to be 64bit compatible as well. I would love to be able to use Structure like this.
2.)
Hyperthreading. At this point it looks like Snow Leopard, which will extend 64bit processing support to its kernel and most of its user apps, is where most of the upside is. For example, Snow Leopard will include something called Grand Central Dispatch that moves the serious multiprocessor usage coding to the kernel so developers don't have to struggle with it.
The multi-threading issues will largely be offloaded from the developers to Apple's OS. That's good news for RTAS development, isn't it? If it's easier for developers in general to deal with multiple processor usage under Snow leopard, I would think it would be easier for Digidesign as well. That's the theory. Damn, that's exciting! And that's not even mentioning OpenCL, which allows developers to go to the GPUs on video cards for any type of processing. Finally!
So this, I hope, gives you a better idea why I pose the question.