Re: Promoting i386 version over x86_64?

[Jon Masters <jcm redhat com>]

On Tue, 2009-12-08 at 18:41 +0100, drago01 wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Rallias UberNerd

> > But wouldn't it be better to use 32 bit when less then 4 GB of ram is
> > present?
> 
> no, using x86_64 means more registers, sse2 as default floating point
> instruction set, better calling convention (register passing vs.
> stack) or in other words in most cases faster code.

Indeed. Intel 64 (x86_64) is really a different animal. More registers,
different behaviors, and not just an LP64 version of what was there
before. I've spent the last few weeks finally reading the x86_64 docs on
my Kindle and really look forward to the older stuff just dying.

Jon.