On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 22:09:31 -0500 Allen/gore/SlackWareWolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sunday 15 February 2004 10:08 am, Tom Brinkman wrote: > > On Saturday 14 February 2004 11:15 am, John Richard Smith > wrote: > > > I will want to be looking to construct afresh. Whats > > > your thinking about 64 bit architecture. I read > > > recently AMD have a chip that runs both 32 and 64bit > > > though I don't know what mobos will suit. Will Mandrake > > > keep up with this developement ? Will anyone be > > > shipping OS's for 64 bit by this time next year? > > > > There's already 64bit OS's includin Mandrake. You'll > > need somebody else to comment tho. I'm not interested in > > 64bit at this time. I think until there's a > > preponderance of software ported to 64bit, you're better > > off with 32bit hardware. > > > > > I just don't have enough time to do the searching for > > > equipement and such like, tend to leave > > > that to others, and take advice, > > > > I'm afraid you'll need to do some of your own > > research. As I said before, to settle on a board that > > fits your requirements. As Charles' reply to this thread > > points out, 3d/acell for KT600 chipsets is a Linux > > (kernel) problem. Doesn't affect me cause I avoid closed > > source proprietary drivers. Actually there's a whole > > lot'a hardware that's goin to be a problem for a while > > with 2.6.x kernels and closed source drivers and > > software. > Do you really actually gain anything with 64 bit? 32 bit is > fast, and 64 bit can claim to be faster, but you're still > executing larger instructions. It may be doing it faster, > but the instruction is still larger, so is their actually a > noticeable speed increase? I doubt most people who are > running off to buy these have any clue what the hell they > are talking about lol. This being faster is just like using > the analogy for a road. The speed limit may be 64, but how > many lanes does it have? Remember, a road with a smaller > speed limit but more lanes will out perform as long as the > speed limit isn't a LOT lower ;) Linux Format Magazine has a supplement called Linux Pro which has recently summarised the case for 64-bit computing. Their general conclusion is that the average desktop user does not need it - yet. It is inherently slower than 32-bit at present because of cache size limitations; a cache of a particular size will hold twice as many 32-bit addresses as 64. As in all things PC, the choice depends to a large extent on the the main job of the machine. 64-bit has an advantage when dealing with huge data sets, especially if those require more than 4 gigabytes of RAM (the limit for 32-bit). At work (Royal Observatory Edinburgh) back in the early 1990s we used some DEC Alpha machines as UNIX workstations and those did seem to run faster than the Sun hardware; but they did have the advantage of 500+ MHz processors. -- Len Lawrence
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