Re: AMD response about Debian x86-64 port
On Saturday 11 January 2003 04:48, Aaron Lehmann wrote:
> While I recognize that this is true, I'm not happy with the way we
> handle archs like sparc64; namely reusing the 32-bit userspace. Many
> applications will not benefit from 64-bit capabilities, however there
The real question should be: Is there a significant number of
applications that are benefit from being 32 bit despite the extra
overhead for support libraries, syscalls and register pressure?
> It seems like a waste to buy a 64-bit processor and only use 32-bit
> userspace binaries. There are several packages which would clearly
> benefit from 64 bit integers, and many others where the benefits are
> not obvious but could be determined through benchmarking. I would like
> to see a debian/control flag specifying which userspace would be
> "best" for a package, but for some reason I don't think this will be a
> popular idea.
I also don't think it will be needed. Keep in mind that a system with
just an x86_64 kernel and the user space from an i386 system is
already working out of the box (modulo bugs).
As stuff gets ported/rebuilt, you just replace each package with
its 64 bit variant (or a dual 32/64 bit variant for libraries).
If it turns out that a certain package should/can not be build for
64 bit, just leave it out and let apt fall back to the i386
package.
Arnd <><
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