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At Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:22:13 +0100,
Gilles Gravier wrote:
>=20
> Ask yourself why you would want a 64 bit OS...
>=20
> Your system will be shuffling double quantities of information from=20
> memory to CPU and back... and CPU will be doing computation on double=20
> the size of objects. Very often (except in some specific cases) this=20
> results in slowing down your machine compared to 32bits.

Speaking as an avid fan and user of the DEC/HP AlphaServer line, I can
say that a 64-bit OS running on a really decent 64-bit processor is
definitely a "Good Thing(tm)!"

I haven't noticed anything but benefits to using a 64-bit machine, at
least not when it's a good AlphaServer implementation!  :-)

Sure it might require a bit more RAM for a given working set, but the
CPU doesn't actually have to do twice the work -- it's already 64-bits
wide.  At least that's the case for Alpha, and I'm hoping for AMD64 too.

> So... if you don't NEED to run in 64 bit mode... then stick to 32 bit=20
> mode. You'll likely get better performance from your system. Regardless=20
> of whether the 64bit OS is or is not ready for production. :)

I'd like to see some proof of better performance in 32-bit mode --
beyond that of just showing larger resident working sets for a given
process.  I've seen some more concrete evidence of this in the
UltraSPARC world, but nothing yet for AMD64.

--=20
						Greg A. Woods

H:+1 416 218-0098 W:+1 416 489-5852 x122 VE3TCP RoboHack <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>       Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>

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