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Re: Seek clarification regarding 32/64 bit OS and processor type

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Daku <dakupoto@gmail.com> wrote:
> Could some Linux guru please clarify the following ?

I will do my best...

> 32-bit and 63-bot OSes refer to the total number of available virtual
> memory addresses (2^32 versus 2^64)
> 
> Does this have any relationship with the type of processor one uses

Yes. Only discussing intel compatible CPUs the following applies:

8086 and 80286 is only capable of running 16 bit OS

80386 to Pentium 4 Northwood and eraly Prescott are 32 bit capable and 16
bit backwards compatible.

Pentium 4 later Prescott and all later intel x86 CPUs are x86_64
compatible and backwards compatible with 32 bit and 16 bit OS.

Then we also have the Itanium architecture which is another 64 bit
architecture from intel. Itanium CPUs got big performance penalties
running 32 but code and never made it into main stream. x86_64 was first
developed by AMD and could be considered 64 bits done right as it didn't
give any big performance penalty for 32 bit code.

> Does that mean we cannot use a 32-bit version of Fedora on a dual core
> machine ?

No, all x86_64 machines are still capable of running a 32 bit OS.

regards Henrik
-- 
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Thread

Seek clarification regarding 32/64 bit OS and processor type Daku <dakupoto@gmail.com> - 2011-07-20 07:43 -0700
  Re: Seek clarification regarding 32/64 bit OS and processor type Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2011-07-20 17:13 +0200
    Re: Seek clarification regarding 32/64 bit OS and processor type Robert Nichols <SEE_SIGNATURE@localhost.localdomain.invalid> - 2011-07-20 19:27 -0500
  Re: Seek clarification regarding 32/64 bit OS and processor type cassiope <fpm@u.washington.edu> - 2011-07-20 08:13 -0700

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