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On Friday 25 May 2007 04:53:26 burlingk@×××××××××.mil wrote: |
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> What makes the difference between a 64 bit kernel, and a 32 bit kernel? |
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Use of 64-bit machine code [*], particularly instructions that make use of |
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64-bit native[**] registers[***]. |
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* Defining this is more difficult, since that does not mean instruction |
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requiring 64-bits to represent as many architectures have variable length |
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instructions. |
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** Native is a difficult term to define, but I'm explicitly excluding the |
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floating-point registers that have been 64-bit or 80-bit from my vague notion |
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of native |
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*** I guess this makes the Cell processor 128-bit? BTW, if the |
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term "register" doesn't mean anything to you it's the fastest memory in your |
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computer, closer to the ALU (etc.) than L1 cache, very small and expensive |
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that are addressed differently than all other memory. |
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-- |
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Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. |
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bss03@××××××××××.net ((_/)o o(\_)) |
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ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' |
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http://iguanasuicide.org/ \_/ |