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Poll: 32 or 64 ? (or other ?)

1 points by jacquesm ↗ HN
I'm wondering how widespread 64 bit computing has become since it was introduced into the mainstream in '92. I see a lot of 32 bit systems still.

What 'size' operating system do you use on your dekstop or server computers ?

If you use 'lower' or 'higher' I'm be very curious about the details of your platform.

6 comments

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davidw
32 bits is easier on memory, and if you have less than 4 gigs of memory, probably makes sense.
rbanffy
In x86 terms, AMD64 offers a couple extra registers that should improve cache hit ratios and reduce a little the memory bandwidth consumption.

At least I hope it would.

davidw
My brief look at it with slicehost vs linode indicated that 64 bit was a significant memory-eater:

http://journal.dedasys.com/2008/11/24/slicehost-vs-linode

rbanffy
Weird... I expected little size variations in the working data. Code size should be neglectable when compared to it. The only data that is affected is pointers and, unless you have a lot of pointers and a little data being pointed to, the difference should not be measurable.

Of course, the programmer could be using register-size integers for all the data.

rbanffy
What? No 36-bit? What if I actually used a Symbolics 3600? ;-)
jacquesm
Well, there was 'larger' :)

And don't forget the 1100 / 2200 series. 9 bit bytes...