If you’re using a Lumia 950 or 950 XL with a relatively modern Snapdragon processor (namely, a Snapdragon 808 or beyond), then your hardware is fully capable of running a 64-bit operating system. That would pay dividends, potentially at least, regarding processing speed, security, and a host of other advantages. To date, though, Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile has been 32-bit, limiting the advantages that could be attained from 64-bit computing.

All of that is likely set to change at some point in the future. As we reported earlier this year, there have been hints that Microsoft would enable ARM64 support in Windows 10 Mobile. ARM64, just as it sounds, is the 64-bit architecture that ARM implemented in the Snapdragon 808, 810, and 820 (and will be the architecture used in their mainstream SoCs going forward).

Today, Microsoft News published a story extolling the virtues of engineer Dave Cutler, who’s decades-long career had a profound impact on the technology industry and on Microsoft specifically. Buried in that story was this bit:

Cutler stopped managing the entire NT project in 1996 but continued to lead the kernel development until 2006. In March 2005, he completed one of his “most gratifying pieces of work” at Microsoft when, partnering with AMD, he helped develop the AMD64 architecture (64-bit extensions to the 32-bit x86 architecture) and led the effort to ship the first two x64 64-bit Windows systems (workstation and server). At the time, some questioned why Microsoft developed a 64-bit system; today most computers are 64-bit systems and even our phones will soon have a 64-bit operating system.

Read more: More evidence pops up for a 64-bit version of Windows 10 Mobile

Posted By: Brink
16 Apr 2016