Re: Pure 64 bootloaders

[Kyle Moffett <mrmacman_g4@mac.com>]

On Sep 13, 2005, at 13:00:16, Joe Bob Spamtest wrote:
> > Is the alpha also pure 64bit?
>
> Alpha was designed 64-bit from the start. DEC did a lot of neat  
> things with the design of that processor -- it's a shame it went  
> the way of the dodo when ia64 was proposed.

PowerPC was designed 64-bit from the start too!  It's just that the  
architecture design group also realized that there would be a demand  
for 32-bit CPUs, and so from the _64-bit_ system, they designed a 32- 
bit system whose entire instruction set would be forward-compatible  
to 64-bit systems when they came out.  That's why 32-bit PowerPC  
machine code and 64-bit PowerPC machine code are completely identical  
except that 64-bit CPUs also have a few opcodes to process 64-bit  
data and a few extra kernel-mode registers.

Cheers,
Kyle Moffett

--
I lost interest in "blade servers" when I found they didn't throw  
knives at people who weren't supposed to be in your machine room.
  -- Anthony de Boer


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