Re: "Trivial Question" - 32bit vs. 64bit vs. 32/64bit
Chris Horn <chris@beefstew.net> writes:
> How would I go
> about running GL games, like Quake, Critical Mass and Return to Castle
> Wolfenstein? Does ALSA work in 64 bits? Do nVidia's video drivers?
Acutally the nVidia drivers depend a lot on the kernel, at least the
drivers that are available for public download. The 1.0-5332 driver from
nVidias web site won't compile with a 2.6 kernel, so you can only use
it with 2.4 kernels. There is a new driver coming up (and already available
for registered nVidia partners) that will do also with kernel 2.6 but AFAIK
its not yet public.
> Applications aside, I thought the Opteron could run either 32bit stuff or
> 64bit stuff natively. If this is so, then why does there need to be a
> software compatibility mode?
The problem that I see (maybe I'm wrong) is that usually you can't have
both a 32bit and 64bit driver running at the same time. So if your driver
(e.g. the graphics driver) is 64bit and your application is 32 bit you
might need a sort of "translation layer" that brings the two worlds
together. Otherwise 3D graphics from 32bit programs won't be able to use
the accelerated 64bit driver.
Regards
Rainer
--
Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Rainer Koenig
Project Manager Linux
Fujitsu-Siemens VP BC E SW OS
Phone: +49-821-804-3321
Fax: +49-821-804-2131
Reply to: