32-bit addressing is a problem
Many digital imaging applications, including The Panorama Factory, allocate a single, contiguous block of virtual memory to hold each uncompressed image during processing. As a consequence of running on a 32-bit architecture, the Windows operating system places a limit on the size of individual virtual memory allocations.
When a user attempts to create a panoramic image whose size exceeds the capabilities of the Windows edition, they are informed that the software is ”out of memory”. There is no doubt that the number of users with this problem is on the rise. The percentage of customer support requests about the "out of memory" problem has doubled in the past 12 months! This is a worrisome trend.
Under Windows XP, customers using 6 mega pixel cameras seem to begin having difficulty with the "out of memory" problem when stitching somewhere between 20 and 40 photos, depending on how they use The Panorama Factory. Customers using 12 or 14 mega pixel cameras can have problems with as few as 10 to 20 photos.