Re: Debian for x86-64 (AMD Opteron)
Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> writes:
> On Wed, Apr 09, 2003 at 09:58:04PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> >
> > Note that the x86_64 is special: It would be relatively easy to bootstrap
> > a port on the actual hardware, but doing it right requires changing _all_
> > library packages as well as many other packages. The problem is that
> > we want binaries to be compatible with i386 as well as with other x86_64
> > distributions and that requires the installation of both 32 and 64 bit
> > libraries at the same time.
>
> IMO, the right way is just like ia64 is doing. 64bit userspace with an
> ia32 subarch installable. Best part about this is that you can use
> almost everything ia64 is doing already. In fact, if dpkg could support
> ia32 packages as a subarch for ia64 and x86_64, the packages could be
> installable on both as-is.
I definitely prefer everything 64-bit with optionally 32-bit rather
than the other way around. Otherwise what's the point?
Plus, as another poster wrote, 64-bit executable might end-up being
faster because of the extra 64-bit-only registers.
Phil.
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