Re: Building i386 binaries on ia64.
On 14-Apr-2007 16:14.22 (BST), Al Stone wrote:
> I personally have no idea why there are ia32-libs on ia64. The
> only possible reasons I can think of are: (1) older versions of
> the processor did have a small x86 processor on chip so it could
> execute x86 binaries, or (2) it allows one to use the Intel ia32el
> layer (a software layer to emulate x86 on ia64, but unfortunately
> proprietary code).
I don't think ia32el is in Debian (nothing in pool/i/ for contrib or
non-free).
The wikipedia article on ia64 sheds a little light, and indicates that point
1 is probably correct (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ia64#IA-32_support):
"The original IA-64 architecture included support for IA-32 instructions
and could therefore run the many thousands of applications available for
x86-based systems. This can eliminate the added expense and complexity of
deploying a second server or porting code from IA-32 to IA-64. However,
performance was slower than for native IA-64 code and about 50% slower
than for the same IA-32 code running on x86 servers of the time."
It goes on to say that it was removed starting with Montecito in July 2006,
and replaced with emulation instead.
I'm giving up on the thought of building i386 binaries on ia64 in that case!
Thanks for the heads up.
rob.
--
rob andrews :: pgp 0x01e00563 :: rob@choralone.org
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