[Novalug] 32 bit Linux on 64 bit Machine

Ed T. Toton III bones@necrobones.net
Mon Nov 20 11:51:18 EST 2006


Thus spake Brian Steisslinger:

> Actually I thought the original Itaniums had a hardware x86 emulator but 
> it sucked compared to native x86 solutions at the time so intel now 
> recommends a software based x86 emulation solution I think the silicon 
> got pulled or at least disabled on the recent Itaniums.

I think you're right. But as someone else pointed out, it's fair to assume 
that the question was specifically conerned with x86 architecture, where 
yes, 32-bit OSen will run just fine on the new 64-bit CPUs.

Intel had this crazy idea that they could push a new architecture and 
instruction set for the server world (Itanium), and de-emphasize the x86 
architecture in this market. Then AMD came out with 64-bit extensions with 
complete backward compatability, forcing Intel to re-evaluate what they 
were doing. It was quite amusing. :)


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  Ed T. Toton III -- http://necrobones.com/ - http://ed.toton.org/
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"For every human problem, there is a neat, plain solution -- and
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