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Re: 2.6.0-test6



On Fri, 3 Oct 2003 06:21:38 -0500
"Paul" <paul@techcenter3000.com> wrote:

> Let's see, the first and most obvious issue would be transferring 64 bit
> pointers per cycle instead of two 32 bit pointers in the same cycle. Sure,
> if I had a large enough data set, it would speed things up greatly.

But the only thing which executes 64-bit code is the operating system
kernel, not the actual applications.

The applications are fully 32-bit.  The 64-bit operating system kernel
supports running both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

The 64-bit kernel doesn't have anything to do with processor speed.

But it is a fact that every 64-bit _PROCESSOR_ that Sun ever sold
is faster than basically all of the 32-bit processors they ever sold.

So whatever perceived or real difference in performance you think you'll
take due to the fact the sparc64 systems use a 64-bit kernel is entirely
nullified by how much faster the sparc64 chips are both in terms of MHZ,
instruction parallelism, and memory bandwidth.



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