64-bit RPM/APT based systems - Worth it?

[fj1200 at comcast.net]

Top reply as I am using the web mail right now...

I sincereley doubt that Intel and AMD will be dropping 32-bit chips after next year...  In my industry, embedded systems design, Intel has already committed a number of their current 32-bit chips as being available for at least the next five years, and AMD have also been doing the same....   And as for some military and other government agency projects (NASA), they generally have to commit to a longer component lifespan than 5 yrs....   


> On Sunday 30 October 2005 4:57 pm, Ben Scott wrote:
> 
> >   From what I've read, I'm not sure how accurate that is.  AMD64 (and
> > Intel's clone of it, EM64T) enable CPU modes which support a native
> > address space larger then 32 bits.  Not the "32 bit window into a
> > larger space" that Intel PAE provided, but true native addressing.
> > You also get 64 bit registers and ops, but you had those already with
> > various ISA extensions.
> >
> >   I say "larger address space" because I don't actually know how large
> > the possible address space of AMD64 is.  Current implementations may
> > not support a full 64 bits of address space.  But as I recall from my
> > machine architecture course at UNH, the Alpha chips of the day didn't
> > really implement a full 64 bits of address space all the time, either.
> >  It's inefficient to process 64 bits of address math when you only
> > need 40 bits or so.  Or so I recall.  My memory is really dusty here.
> The AMD64 chip supports full 64-bit virtual address space. However, only 
> 52-bits are currently used for physical addressing. In 64-bit mode the 
> address space is flat. (A separate address space for code, stack and data 
> segments is also possible).
> A 32-bit app running in a 64-bit OS runs in compatibility mode where the 
> legacy 32-bit and 16-bit segmentation addresses are mapped to the lower 
> 32-bits of virtual address.  A 32-bit OS operates in a legacy mode. 
> 
> According to industry sources, neither Intel nor AMD will be producing 
> 32-bit chips after next year. I personally see AMD cutting into Intel's 
> market share on personal systems and low end servers since it is a better 
> performing chip than Intel's EM64T line. The high-end server market will 
> see IBM, HP and Sun duke it out. 
> -- 
> Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> Boston Linux and Unix user group
> http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
> PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
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