I am curious to see if the BIOS supports virtualization. On 06/15/2010 02:29 PM, Gerry Hull wrote: > This is why I LOVE this list -- lots of great feedback. > > I'll go w/64-bit (trying it w/the live-CD first), and probably Virtualbox. > > BTW, I bought the X61 for $250, in mint condition, from Craigslist. > Pretty good deal for a decent dual-core box. > > Thanks! > > Gerry > > On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 2:08 PM, Jerry Feldman <g...@blu.org > <mailto:g...@blu.org>> wrote: > > On 06/15/2010 01:48 PM, Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote: > > It is true that a 32-bit machine can only access 4GB, and > sometimes even > > less than that (depending on how the application address space is > > organized) in one *virtual* address space, but this does not > necessarily > > stop the kernel from "using all of RAM". It is just that > various parts > > of multiple virtual address spaces get mapped into the physical > memory > > of the machine. It was this concept that allowed the old > PDP-11s, which > > had only a 64K memory address space (128K with separate > "instruction" > > and "data" address spaces) utilize all of the physical memory on > > machines that had multiple megabytes of RAM. > > > > So even a "32-bit" OS could fully utilize the real memory of a > 64-bit > > CPU machine having multiple gigabytes of RAM if its memory > management > > software allows....it is just that the applications are limited to a > > 32-bit space at one time. > > > The Linux 32-bit kernel supports PAE (the extension that allows access > to more than 3GB RAM). The other issue with 32-bit is with 32-but > applications as they are also limited in virtual space. One of the > things I tested a few years ago was performance. Some applications and > benchmarks ran faster in 32-bit mode than in 64-bit mode, but some > will > run faster in 64-bit mode. My testing was on both 32-bit and 64-bit > Linux on X86/X86_64 as well as Linux on IA64. The X86_64 > benchmarks beat > the IA64 in many cases. > > Some technical advantages of a 64-bit kernel is that the X86_64 chips > use linear addressing in 64-bit mode where 32-bit is segmented. There > are some other chip related advantages that make a 64-bit Linux OS > perform better than the same OS in 32-bit mode. Graphics > performance is > also better in 64-bit mode. > > -- > Jerry Feldman <g...@blu.org <mailto:g...@blu.org>> > Boston Linux and Unix > PGP key id: 537C5846 > PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C > 5846 > > > > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org <mailto:gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org> > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > >
-- Jerry Feldman <g...@blu.org> Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846
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