Re: Confused about 64-bit architectures.
On Friday 17 February 2006 11:02, Adam Funk wrote:
> I'm planning to buy a new home computer soon and am considering Xeon,
> Athlon 64 and Opteron 64, but I'm not sure about the relevant Debian
> architectures, ia64 and amd64. Which one applies to which of those
> processors?
>
> I'm also concerned about the potential shortage of 64-bit software for
> a general-purpose workstation, so I'd like to know what other people
> think of this. Will I be setting myself up for a lot of hassle?
> Should I just stick with a Pentium 4 for now?
>
> Thanks,
> Adam
amd64 applies to all amd *64 processors, that is athlon, turion and opteron
afaik, and recent Intel processors of the Pentium and Xeon brands. Prescott
P4s support amd64, branded EM64T by Intel, for example.
IA64 is usable only on Intel Itantum processors. You can run i386 on AMD64
processors as well.
Most open source software (including all of KDE and GNOME) works on AMD64 and
for that that doesn't or for non-open source software you can use the i386
emulation built into the processor and supported by the linux kernel.
The debian amd64 howto is one of many sources of information.
I am on an Athlon64 now. AFAIK, Intel Pentium and Xeon processors do not
support EM64T as well as AMD64 is supported by AMD.
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