Re: Transitioning to 64bit, is it worth it, and how

["Andrew J. Barr" <andrew.james.barr@gmail.com>]

On 8/4/07, Alan Chandler <alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk> wrote:
> I have a Core2 Duo on which I am running a 686 kernel (from Debian
> unstable).  It has 1GB of memory
>
> I am wondering two things
>
> a) What are the pros and cons in switching to 64 bit mode?
>         - Is it faster?

Yes. Unlike true 64-bit architectures like PowerPC, there is a penalty
for executing 32 bit code on amd64/em64t processors. This is why the
amd64 port of Debian has an all 64-bit user land, whereas other 64-bit
ports of Linux and other operating systems generally have mostly a
32-bit user land and compile only applications that would benefit for
64-bit.

-- 
Andrew Barr

We matter more than pounds and pence,
your economic theory makes no sense...