On Thursday 14 April 2005 12:58 pm, Susemail wrote:
Aside from the larger address space-what good is a 64 bit CPU?? There are many benefits to 64-bits. (Note that I have been a 64-bit user since 1994 including Linux). First, as you mentioned a larger linear address space. The x86 architecture was segmented. Larger tables, such as much larger file systems. Inherently faster transfers, a 64-bit processor transfers 64 bits at a time where a 32-bit system transfers 32-bits at a time. (There are some caveats too).
A 64-bit system uses 64-bit registers, so that integer calculations can be
done using 64-bit registers. Integers are better for financial calculations
because of the rounding and inaccuracies of floating point.
I guess the marketing people can come up with a bunch more, butthose are a
few off the top of my head.
--
Jerry Feldman