Announcement! 64 bit Prophecy is Available Immediately!
After
many,
many
months
in
development
a
64
bit
version
of
the
Prophecy
Client
application
is
now
available.
While
the
differences
between
existing
(32
bit)
Prophecy
and
the
new
64
bit
version
may
seem
boringly
‘techie’,
this
newsletter
endeavours
to
quickly
explain
why
64
bit is beneficial and why you should probably upgrade to it.
You
should
consider
upgrading
to
Prophecy
64
bit
because
it’s
faster
and
it
lets
you
build
and
replay
much larger Prophecy reports.
In performance tests we see a
minimum 15% speed
improvement in replaying
Prophecy reports. In
some cases we see
in excess of a 30%
speed improvement.
You are highly likely
to see a similar
improvement,
although there are
numerous variables
affecting the result.
You
can
upgrade
to
Prophecy
64
bit
on
any
64
bit
version
of
Windows
or
Windows
Server.
(In
fact,
you
can
run
both
versions
on
the
same
computer
as
they
are
separate,
independent
installations.
Which
means
you
can
install
and
test
the
64
bit
version
without
having
to
uninstall
or
stop
using
the 32 bit version.)
Note
that
Prophecy
32
bit
and
Prophecy
64
bit
are
built
from
the
same
source
code.
Feature
for
feature
they
are
identical.
However,
due
to
the
benefits
of
64
bit
computer
architecture
the
64
bit
version executes the same code faster.
In
addition
to
performance
benefits
the
new
64
bit
Prophecy
build
can
access
ALL
of
the
memory
available
on
your
computer.
For
some
users
this
will
be
a
big
benefit
-
they
will
be
able
to
generate
very
large
reports
without
running
out
of
memory
as
they
would
have
done
on
the
32
bit
version.
(Note:
there
are
new
Database
Manager
settings
which
allow
memory
quotas
to
be
set
for
each
user
in
order
to
protect
the
server
from
potentially
running out of memory.)
So,
64
bit
Prophecy
should
be
a
more
pleasant
environment
to
be
in
where
things
should happen noticeably faster!
Are
there
any
reasons
NOT
to
switch?
Well,
obviously
you
need
to
be
running
Prophecy
on
a
64
bit
version
of
Windows
as
it
won’t
run
on
32
bit
Windows.
That
should
not
normally
be
a
problem
because
newer
Windows
systems
are
64
bit
these days, but check first.
The
only
actual
negative,
which
affects
all
64
bit
applications,
is
that
they
will
use
more
memory
than
their
32
bit
equivalents.
In
other
words,
replaying
the
same
report
in
Prophecy
64
bit
is
likely
to
use
around
50%
more
RAM
memory
in
your computer.
However,
this
should
not
be
an
issue
except
on
really
massive
reports
and
seems
a
price
well
worth
paying
in
return
for
the
performance
improvements
offered
by
64
bit Prophecy.
Please
ask
your
Prophecy
Database
Manager
or
IT
specialist
to
contact
Data
Perceptions
and
we
will
provide
you
with
an
installer
download
link.
Note
that
Administrator
rights
are
needed
to
install
Prophecy.