In another of what has been a steady stream of product delays by Microsoft, CNet is reporting that the 64-bit version of Windows XP will be delayed until the first half of next year, along with 64-bit versions of Windows 2003 server and the 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 2003 Server SP1 (Service Pack 1).

This comes on the heels of recent announcements in the delay of Service Pack for XP (which has caused the delay of the release of VirtualPC for the Macintosh), and the much ballyhooed delay of Longhorn into 2006 or 2007 or 2005, or whatever.

At this point, I'm sure the folks at AMD are extremely happy that their 64-bit architecture chips are very competitive when running in 32-bit mode.

Apple must be at least equally happy that this would put the release of Tiger (MacOS X 10.4), the first version of MacOS to fully support 64-bit computing in a dead heat with Microsoft's 64-bit windows.