Author: Tom Kerrigan
Date: 14:18:13 05/19/03
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On May 18, 2003 at 12:29:33, Ricardo Gibert wrote: >On May 18, 2003 at 09:40:34, Alvaro Jose Povoa Cardoso wrote: > >>Hi, I was thinking on upgrading my system to an Athlon 64 (not yet released) by >>Christmas 2003. >>Assuming those systems will be available by year end, I was wondering if by then >>you will have a binary of crafty that would run 64 bit instructions and if it >>would run normaly with winboard. >>Also, will it run on the current Windows XP (32 bit)? >> >> >>Best regards, >>Alvaro Cardoso > >Don't be so eager to jump on the athlon 64 bandwagon. Too many things are new >about it: > >(1) New 64 bit cpu >(2) New supporting chipsets >(3) New 64 bit OS >(4) New hardware drivers >(5) New 64 bit compilers >(6) and more generally: New 64 bit software If you don't like (3), (4), (5), or (6), then just use 32-bit software. Reviews of Opteron running 32-bit software indicate that it performs quite well. Speaking to each point individually: (1) - What's wrong with a new processor? Would you hold off on buying a Pentium 5 because it's new? What would you wait for, a Pentium 6 instead? Besides, the Athlon 64/Opteron is based on current Athlons, so it's not 100% new. (2) - Again, all "old" chipsets were new at one point. (3) - Not really, both Linux and Windows have been running on, e.g., IA-64 for a while now. The 64-bit issues have had a while to work themselves out. (4) - I'm not certain, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could use 32-bit drivers on an A64 even if you're running a 64-bit OS. (5) - GCC, and I believe VC, have been compiling 64-bit binaries for some time. (6) - The 64-bit OSs will still be able to run 32-bit software, so you don't need 64-bit software. People have been working on Opteron/Athlon 64 hardware and software for more than 2 years now (I believe the emulator was released more than 2 years ago) and by all reports it's quite stable. I would not be worried about buying one. -Tom
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