Re: New Release

[Danial Thom <danial_thom@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- "Martin P. Hellwig" <mhellwig@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> justin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >>I see no mention of amd64 in the release
> notes
> >>but some mention of it elsewhere. Is this
> >>planned? If so in what time frame?
> > 
> > 
> > It's planned, but the system is going through
> rapid changes right now. 
> > It'll be easier to support other processor
> architectures once the other
> > system features are settled - otherwise,
> people would be building things
> > several times over.
> > 
> > There's a FAQ entry that says essentially
> this.  It's the same answer for
> > things like PowerPC or, say, Sparc, ARM, etc.
>  I think an ARM port would
> > be neat, as there seems to be more small
> devices these days using that
> > CPU.
> > 
> 
> As a stupid user I wonder what it takes
> generally to support the AMD 64 
> bit extension, what are the typical issues in
> supporting both 32 and 64 
> bit code? Links would be very welcome too :-)

A better question is what does it take to do it
well, or whether its worthwhile. In FreeBSD, the
amd64 is so clunky its unusable on a server, IMO.
I shiver at the thought of trying linux, or
windows, but I am curious. Is there a way with
GCC 3+ to utilize the extra registers without
running in full-blown 64bit mode? If you don't
need the memory that seems like it might be an
ideal enhancement. 

Danial

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