Re: Confused about 64-bit architectures.
On 2/17/06, Graham Smith <graham@crazysquirrel.com> wrote:
On Friday 17 February 2006 14:42, Adam Funk wrote:
> On 2006-02-17, Graham Smith <graham@crazysquirrel.com> wrote:
> > Having said that there is not really any advantage to running the 64 bit
> > port as there isn't any software that makes use of the extra features and
> > the Althon 64 in 32 bit mode is just as fast.
>
> Does that mean I can just install Debian i386 on an Athlon 64?
>
Yes. The Althon 64 fully supports i386 through some fancy on chip emulation
that is as fast as a native 32 bit chip (I think all the 64 bit processors
you mention do this but don't quite me on that).
AMD64 does not emulate x86-32. Rather x86-64 is an extention of x86-32. So
yes all x86-32 software runs fine (and at full speed) on x86-64, but not because
of emulation.
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