More views on the developer perspective: As wesley correctly stated 64 bit allows more ram so larger data sets, larger apps can be in memory at the same time. I have been reading about the processor developments recently and i've learnt that there is a big gap between software applications and hardware as in not very many applications have been developed that are able to make use of the current hardware available. First of all there is 64 bit software and then there is the issue of multiple cores and now there is even the issue of hyperthreading on the multiple cores. Applications that are not designed for threading will generally just sit on one core and the only benefit u'll get will be if u are running more than one processor intensive application at a go, where each will use up it own core. here is a link to a discussion on dell's "justification" on why u need multiple cores http://bit.ly/cwgD4G which i found quite hillarious. so in summary, i think there is an opportunity for developers to bridge that gap, it needs skills to be able to come up with good code thats able to use up all the processing resources available. Sent from my thoughts depository. On 22/04/2010, wesley kirinya <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
From a developer's perspective:
The applications that benefit most are memory-bound applications because of the increase in RAM and a larger Memory Bus (path between processor and RAM). The larger Memory Bus can handle twice the amount of data. (64 vrs 32). A processor-bound application can still benefit and this leads to another topic...
The software developer may have to tweek the application to take advantage of 64 bit. The tweeks are low-level and one has to be using C/C++/Assembly. Anyway if one is not using these languages then performance is not an issue in whatever they're developing therefore no need to worry about 64/32bit.
Benchmarking an un-tweeked application between 32bit and 64bit may not show increased performance. Moreover, an increase in performance might not really be because the processor is 64bit, but might be because of new features introduced in the 64bit processor.
--- On Thu, 4/22/10, Alvin Jason Ochieng <ajochola@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Alvin Jason Ochieng <ajochola@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Bytes for the week : 32bit or 64bit computing? To: "Skunkworks Mailing List" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010, 11:12 AM
Same here !!! CURIOSITY KILLS ....am ready to die...
On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 11:07 AM, James Wachira <jwaciira.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
I am also curious about experiences with 64bit OS/Apps
On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 11:02 AM, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
Been looking at various advantages and disadvantages of 64bit over 32bit. For example, on Windows machines, one key area that helps is RAM that can be pushed to 128GB removing the 4GB barrier that exists on 32bit. 64bit applications availability maybe an issue but anyone who has used say eg a MAC can relate to this better.
Anyone using 64bit on this list. How has the performance been on running 32bit applications like broswers, office tools, games?
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