amd32 should be ready in the kernel and gcc/glibc. We just need someone to prepare nix/nixpgks/nixos for this. :)
On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 12:05:29PM +0200, Christian Theune wrote: > Hi, > > same here. > > Many interpreted languages (like Python) are affected by this as they tend to > be quite pointer-happy. As pointer-size doubles from 32bit to 64bit we find > that in most applications we have about 70% increase when moving to 64-bit > ending up with 1.7 as much memory as before. So we also currently run > applications in 32-bit virtual machines and rather use many 3GiB processes > than a few bigger ones. Moving from 3GiB to 64bit requires about 5GiB just to > even out the pointer-size effects. > > Supposedly the amd64 instruction set has some benefits that make e.g. Python > run faster on certain computational stuff, but I don’t have prove for that. > > In the long term we will include 64-bit in the mix anyway as some > applications (Mongo, sigh) are quite trigger happy with allocating virtual > (non residential) memory for mmapping insane numbers of insanely large files … > > Christian > > > On 12 May 2015, at 11:59, Lluís Batlle i Rossell <vi...@viric.name> wrote: > > > > My experience is equal with Marco, about memory and my usage of i686. i686 > > is important for me too. > > > > On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 11:43:47AM +0200, Marco Maggesi wrote: > >> I use 32 bit a lot. > >> First of all, I use it on some old machines with 32bit hardware. > >> But, more importantly, I use it regularly on virtuabox and xen virtual > >> machines. > >> In my experience, for most of my use cases the 32bit require less memory > >> (which is often not abundant on virtual instances) and it is thus generally > >> faster for many computing tasks . I made some tests with HOL Light (the > >> theorem prover). The bare program has memory occupation which almost the > >> double in the 64bit version (~1.2Gb) with respect to the 32bit version > >> (~0.7Gb). On a virtual machine with 2Gb of ram, the 32 bit it is often > >> 10%-20% faster on typical usage and 50% faster or more when the computation > >> requires more memory. > >> In my experience, the version 32 bit can be more convenient than the 64bit > >> version in a variety of situations. > >> So, please, do not give-up with 32 bit support. > >> Marco > >> > >> > >> > >> 2015-05-12 11:08 GMT+02:00 Luke Clifton <ltclif...@gmail.com>: > >> > >>> +1 > >>> > >>> This seems like a good idea. > >>> > >>> On 12 May 2015 at 06:45, William Kennington <will...@wkennington.com> > >>> wrote: > >>> > >>>> Maybe it would make more sense to only build the i686 builds if our > >>>> tested set of x86_64 binaries build correctly. We would still release > >>>> with > >>>> both but it would cut down on a lot of redundant failures. > >>>> > >>>> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 3:39 PM Ryan Trinkle <ryan.trin...@gmail.com> > >>>> wrote: > >>>> > >>>>> I encountered an i686 user just the other day! I don't use it > >>>>> personally, but having solid support in Nix was fantastic, especially > >>>>> because older, 32-bit machines tend to be slower, which makes Nix's > >>>>> binary > >>>>> caching functionality even more important. > >>>>> > >>>>> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 6:36 PM, Shea Levy <s...@shealevy.com> wrote: > >>>>> > >>>>>> Hi all, > >>>>>> > >>>>>> Do we still have users running 32-bit machines? It would reduce the > >>>>>> load on > >>>>>> hydra significantly if we could drop support for i686, though of course > >>>>>> if > >>>>>> people are still relying on it we shouldn't make the change yet. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> ~Shea > >>>>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>>>> nix-dev mailing list > >>>>>> nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl > >>>>>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > >>>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>>> nix-dev mailing list > >>>>> nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl > >>>>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > >>>>> > >>>> > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> nix-dev mailing list > >>>> nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl > >>>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> nix-dev mailing list > >>> nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl > >>> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > >>> > >>> > > > >> _______________________________________________ > >> nix-dev mailing list > >> nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl > >> http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > > > > > > -- > > (Escriu-me xifrat si saps PGP / Write ciphered if you know PGP) > > PGP key D4831A8A - https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > > nix-dev mailing list > > nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl > > http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev > > — > Christian Theune · c...@flyingcircus.io · +49 345 219401 0 > Flying Circus Internet Operations GmbH · http://flyingcircus.io > Forsterstraße 29 · 06112 Halle (Saale) · Deutschland > HR Stendal HRB 21169 · Geschäftsführer: Christian. Theune, Christian. > Zagrodnick > -- (Escriu-me xifrat si saps PGP / Write ciphered if you know PGP) PGP key D4831A8A - https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/ _______________________________________________ nix-dev mailing list nix-dev@lists.science.uu.nl http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev