Only 'x86' parts, if you look at other architectures (for instance 68k) then the dates will be quite different.
The interesting part about that list is that if the clock frequencies had continue to increase I'm fairly sure that the 32 bit model would have been taken a lot further up before going for 64 bits.
So it seems as though the widening of the datapath is to some extent used to offset the limit on CPU frequency.
You need it to take advantage of 4GB+ of memory really - so that's most systems you see in shops already. 64bit took off in Enterprise systems (IBM/Sun/SGI etc.) where it was common to have 4GB+ of memory years ago. The Desktop is next. 64bit will come to mobile/embedded when they have 4GB+ of memory.
The Windows and Mac OS ecosystems (particularly drivers) need to catch up with 64bit support, currently this is still spotty which is inhibiting adoption. Linux support driver support for 64bit is excellent due to most drivers being open source - but most people are not using Linux.
Yes I know. But if you are running a game on a PC with 8GB of memory and the game can only use 4GB of that (actually 2.7GB in windows), it's not really taking advantage of it, is it?
Ouch... hope you get better soon then, that can really ruin a week or more if you're unlucky. I hate that feeling, when your brain turns to mush and you can't think clearly.
8080 1974, 8 bits, 2 MHz
8086 1978, 16 bits, 5 MHz
80386 1985, 32 bits, 12 MHz
AMDK8 2003, 64 bits, 1 GHz
Only 'x86' parts, if you look at other architectures (for instance 68k) then the dates will be quite different.
The interesting part about that list is that if the clock frequencies had continue to increase I'm fairly sure that the 32 bit model would have been taken a lot further up before going for 64 bits.
So it seems as though the widening of the datapath is to some extent used to offset the limit on CPU frequency.