Running Omniscope on 64-bit Installations

Using 64-bit Windows avoids the 32-bit Windows memory addressing bottleneck

Benefits of running 64-bit software

Using 64-bit software avoids the 32-bit Windows memory addressing bottleneck, allowing far higher record counts. PCs running 32-bit Windows can only allocate a little over 1 GB of system memory for Java/Omniscope use, limiting Omniscope file size to a little over a million records. PCs running 64-bit Windows, 64-bit Java, and 64-bit Omniscope are limited only by the amount of RAM memory physically present. It is now quite easy now to purchase PCs at consumer prices with 12 GB or more of RAM memory, although the PC must have a 64-bit Windows operating system installed for this to be of use. Almost all new installations of Windows 7 are 64-bit.

Making the most of 64-bit installs

Beginning with Omniscope 2.4, a 64-bit installer is now provided for those with a 64-bit operating systems/Java installs  who are interested in taking advantage of the benefits of 64-bit Omniscope. From the download page you can now select "Windows: 64-bit" under the section entitled "Also available for". This version can only be installed on a 64-bit Windows operating system. If you have a 32-bit operating system you can only install the 32-bit version of Omniscope. If you have a 64-bit operating system, you can choose between the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Omniscope and can install both. Installing both enables you to work with large Source IOK files in your 64-bit installation, and test your Reports IOK files prior to distribution to 32-bit recipients using your 32-bit installation.

Current Limitations of 64-bit Omniscope

If you are using only the 64-bit version of Omniscope, the following are unavailable for configuring Reports IOK files until version 2.7:

• The Web view
• Online zooming maps within the Map view

All core data manipulations remain available, such as formulae and all the other views. You can start file configuration using 64-bit for scalability and complete configuration using 32-bit Omniscope.

More detail on 32 versus 64-bit operation

Operating systems and programs both come in two versions; 32-bit (each instruction processed is 32 bits long) and 64-bit (each instruction processed is 64-bits long). Almost all processors are 64-bit capable now, and most data centre servers have already been converted to 64-bit operating systems because of its superior speed and higher memory-addressing limits. The 32-bit version of Omniscope (which can be installed on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows) is restricted by the 32-bit Windows-imposed memory limit, effectively limiting the typical Omniscope file size to about 1.2 million records because Windows/Java is unable to provide Omniscope with access to more than about 1 GB of installed RAM. Running 64-bit Omniscope on 64-bit Windows/Java platforms effectively removes this limit (just like using longer telephone numbers permits more numbers to be issued) and allows Omniscope data sets to scale up to the limits of the RAM installed on the machine.

The 64-bit Omniscope installer is a different installer, but it installs to the same location, and there is no additional licensing implication of running on 64-bit systems. If you are installing Omniscope on a machine running a 64-bit version of Windows, you will not escape the addressing memory limit in 32-bit Java unless you also install and run 64-bit version of Java bundled as a PVM with 64-bit Omniscope. If you plan to generate and export DataPlayers, you will also need to install the 64-bit version of Flash.

Customising 64-bit RAM memory allocation

By default, the 64-bit version of Omniscope limits Omniscope to 75% of physical RAM memory, unless the machine has more than 8 GB of RAM, in which case Omniscope will take all but 2GB, leaving that 2GB of RAM for the operating system. These default allocations can be over-ridden and scalability further improved by customising Omniscope memory allocation.