One thing I've noticed about 64-bit computing in general is that it's being oversold. The **only** reason for running in 64-bit mode is if you need the additional address space. Indeed, for some apps this is critical and 64-bit computing solves a real problem. For apps that don't need the extra address space, the benefits of the additional registers in x86-64 are nearly undone by the need to move more bits around, so 32-bit and 64-bit modes are pretty much a push. When you add the additional difficulty of getting 64-bit drivers and what-not, I don't think it's worth messing with 64-bit computing for apps that don't need the address space.
One additional way 64-bit computing is being oversold is that there aren't now, and maybe never will be, any human written program that requires more than 32 bits for the instruction segment of the program. It's simply too complex for a human, or a group of humans, to write this much code. Again, note that this says nothing about the data segment of a program. Also, people tell me that there are programs that were generated by other programs that are larger than 32 bits. I've never seen one, but maybe they exist, and that's what I'm talking about human written programs. Cordially, -- Jon Forrest Unix Computing Support College of Chemistry 173 Tan Hall University of California Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-1460 510-643-1032 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
