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Groups > comp.os.linux.hardware > #1062

Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS??

From Aragorn <stryder@telenet.be.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.os.linux.hardware
Subject Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS??
Followup-To comp.os.linux.hardware
Date 2012-02-27 20:05 +0100
Organization A noiseless patient Strider
Message-ID <jigk6n$4kr$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References <9r1v3cF1e1U9@mid.individual.net>

Followups directed to: comp.os.linux.hardware

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On Monday 27 February 2012 19:07, ray conveyed the following to 
comp.os.linux.hardware...

> Would there be any particular advantage to running a 64 bit version
> of, say, Debian on a netbook which is limited to 2gb RAM but does have
> a 64 bit Atom processor?

Probably not.  With only 2 GB of RAM, and assuming that the RAM cannot 
be upgraded for some hardware-related reason, you're probably better off 
running a 32-bit operating system on it.

On such a "small" machine, your 64-bit performance gain is most likely 
going to be negated by the necessity of the operating system to page out 
memory to the disk - or, if applicable, the solid state drive.  The load 
on the RAM is somewhat lighter with a 32-bit operating system.

Of course, a lot depends on what you'll be running, but just for 
comparison's sake, I am running a 64-bit Mageia here now with KDE 4.6.5 
and only a few opened applications, and this is my current memory 
usage...

           total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        3963       2414       1549          0          2       1300
-/+ buffers/cache:     1110       2852
Swap:       7998          0       7998

Of course, a lot of that is cache, but that's exactly what makes your 
system snappier.  There's far less room for cache on a 2 GB RAM system.

By comparison, my 32-bit PCLinuxOS (with KDE 3.5.10) generally runs with 
just over 1 GB of RAM in use, cache included.  There is of course a 
difference in code complexity between KDE 3.5.10 and KDE 4.6.5, but 
still, I mainly attribute the memory consumption surplus here in Mageia 
to its 64-bit nature.

This reminds me, there is a new x86 operating system "architecture" for 
the Linux kernel in the making - and I will be checking up on its status 
as soon as I've finished typing this article - called x32.  x32 is a 64-
bit implementation for x86-64 processors, but it uses 32-bit pointers so 
as to be more economic on the RAM.  This is especially useful in 
embedded devices, and potentially also for the type of machine you are 
now inquiring about.

But like I said, I'm going to have to check up on its status, because I 
don't know how far the project has advanced yet so far, and/or whether 
it's already being implemented at a distribution level.  (Frankly, I'd 
be surprised, as I haven't heard anything in that regard yet.)

Just my two Eurocents. ;-)

-- 
= Aragorn =
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

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Thread

Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2012-02-27 18:07 +0000
  Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Aragorn <stryder@telenet.be.invalid> - 2012-02-27 20:05 +0100
    Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Aragorn <stryder@telenet.be.invalid> - 2012-02-27 20:39 +0100
    Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Pascal Hambourg <boite-a-spam@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2012-02-27 22:04 +0100
      Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Aragorn <stryder@telenet.be.invalid> - 2012-02-28 00:06 +0100
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Pascal Hambourg <boite-a-spam@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2012-02-29 20:49 +0100
      Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Dave <noone$$@llondel.org> - 2012-02-28 07:28 +0000
    Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2012-03-02 22:42 +0100
      Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Aragorn <stryder@telenet.be.invalid> - 2012-03-03 00:18 +0100
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2012-03-03 09:27 +0000
  Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? DenverD <DenverD@invalid.dk> - 2012-02-27 22:54 +0100
    Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SPAMvalette@free.fr> - 2012-02-27 23:46 +0100
  Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Stefan Patric <not@this.address.com> - 2012-02-28 02:32 +0000
    Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric VALETTE <ericNo.Spamvalette@free.fr> - 2012-02-28 10:04 +0100
      Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-02-28 11:30 -0600
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SPAMvalette@free.fr> - 2012-02-28 19:21 +0100
          Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-02-28 15:50 -0600
            Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SpamValette@free.fr> - 2012-02-29 22:11 +0100
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SPAMvalette@free.fr> - 2012-02-28 19:23 +0100
          Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-02-28 15:51 -0600
            Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SpamValette@free.fr> - 2012-02-29 22:45 +0100
      Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Stefan Patric <not@this.address.com> - 2012-02-28 20:32 +0000
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SpamValette@free.fr> - 2012-02-29 22:12 +0100
          Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Stefan Patric <not@this.address.com> - 2012-03-01 05:47 +0000
            Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric VALETTE <ericNo.Spamvalette@free.fr> - 2012-03-01 10:32 +0100
              Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-03-01 13:54 -0600
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SpamValette@free.fr> - 2012-03-02 23:18 +0100
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-03-05 15:08 -0600
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SpamValette@free.fr> - 2012-03-02 23:18 +0100
              Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Stefan Patric <not@this.address.com> - 2012-03-02 00:40 +0000
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Eric Valette <EricNo.SpamValette@free.fr> - 2012-03-02 23:37 +0100
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Stefan Patric <not@this.address.com> - 2012-03-03 18:04 +0000
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-03-05 15:16 -0600
  Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2012-02-28 15:56 +0000
    Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Bob Tennent <BobT@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-02-28 16:52 +0000
      Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2012-02-28 19:24 +0000
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-02-28 15:53 -0600
          Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2012-02-28 22:15 +0000
            Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-02-28 17:12 -0600
              Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2012-02-29 02:43 +0000
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2012-02-29 12:35 -0600
                Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Bob Tennent <BobT@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-02-29 19:51 +0000
        Re: Atom netbook - 32 or 64 bit OS?? Bob Tennent <BobT@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-02-28 22:36 +0000

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