On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 21:18, Thomas Petazzoni wrote: > Why don't we consider the x86-64 as beeing a 64-bits-only architecture
Because we want to run Netscape, commercial games, Frauhofer MP3 en/decoders, Oracle, and other binary-only i386 software. If AMD had made a 64bit only CPU and devoted those extra transistors to cache it would have improved performance for 64bit code. After paying the performance penalty of a 32bit ISA it makes sense to take advantage of it. -- http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/ My NSA Security Enhanced Linux packages http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/postal/ Postal SMTP/POP benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/ My home page
