I am using Visual C++ 2010 developing 32bit windows applications. There is something I really want to use inline assembly. But I just realized that visual C++ does not support inline assembly in 64bit applications. So porting to 64bit in the future is a big issue.
I have no idea how 64bit applications are different from 32bit applications. Is there a chance that 32bit applications will ALL have to be upgraded to 64bit in the future? I heard that 64bit CPUs have more registers. Since performance is not a concern for my applications, using these extra registers is not a concern to me. Are there any other reasons that a 32bit application needs to be upgraded to 64bit? Would a 64 bit application process things differently when compared with a 32bit application, apart from that the 64bit applications may use registers or instructions that are unique to 64bit CPUs?
My application needs to interact with other OS components e.g. drivers, which i know must be 64bit in 64bit windows. Would my 32bit application compatible with them?