News

SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 Released

• By Scott Bekker
• 05/07/2005

The major new feature of the service pack is extending SQL Server support to the Windows x64 editions, which run on x86 processors with 64-bit extensions (AMD64 and Intel EM64T). An existing edition of SQL Server 2000 already supported the Intel Itanium architecture for 64-bit computing.

Microsoft released the x64 editions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional in late April. Specifically, SP4 will allow customers to run 32-bit SQL Server applications on x64 systems in Windows on Windows emulation (WOW64).

The cumulative service pack includes new bug fixes for the relational database and the Analysis Services component, along with all fixes included in SP1, SP2 and SP3a. The service pack also enhances performance and serviceability.

Microsoft's last service pack came out around the time the SQL Slammer worm raged. Even though it's been awhile, Microsoft's SQL Server developers haven't been standing still on SQL Server 2000 in advance of SQL Server 2005, expected later this year. Since SP3a, Microsoft updated SQL Server 2000's functionality significantly with SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services at the beginning of 2004. Reporting Services received its own SP2 a few weeks ago.

The SP4 download is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2000/sp4.asp.