Re: I think I'm ready to give up on x86_64

["Nathan Meyers-2" <user=8@nabble.blu.org>]

 Jerry Feldman wrote: 
> On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 07:56:13 -0400 
> Nathan Meyers <[hidden email]> wrote: 
> 
>   
>> 64 bits also places higher demands on the 
>> system: more bits to sling around the bus and greater load on the heap 
>> from the larger words. Unless you need that address space, moving to 64 
>> bits is pure downside. 
>>     
> 
> The incremental load on the bus is small if anything since it is 
> designed for 64 bits. Why is there an extra load on the heap. The heap 
> would be allocated on a 64-bit boundary, but malloc will allocate what 
> you need. But, yes, because of boundary conditions, structures are 
> aligned on 64-bit boundaries. So, your code may use some extra memory. 
> On the upside, as I mentioned there are 16 64-bit registers. While this 
> means saving more registers on context switches, it can mean better 
> performance. 
>