On Fri, 2005-11-11 at 15:20 -0600, Jonathan Berry wrote: > On 11/11/05, Gerhard Magnus <magnus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hello All, > > > > I don't know if there's a short answer to this... but what do "32 bit" > > and "64 bit" refer to and how can I tell which applies to my computer? > > > > When referring to hardware, 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the bit width > of the general purpose registers in the CPU of a computer. When > referring to software, they refer to software that has been compiled > to run on a 32-bit or 64-bit processor. > > If you do not know which applies to your computer, chances are 32-bit > does, as it is the most prevalent. More and more computers coming out > are 64-bit capable, though, so this may become less true. 64-bit > would apply to your computer if you have a new AMD CPU (with the > exception of the original Sempron) or a new Intel CPU that supports > EM64T (Intel's name for their implementation of AMD64 or the x86_64 > architecture). Even with a 64-bit CPU, in the case of AMD64 or EM64T, > you can still choose to run a 32-bit operating system or software, so > that is where it can get the most confusing. Look at /proc/cpuinfo > for detailed information on your CPU. If you still cannot figure it > out, post the contents of that file here, and someone can probably > help you out. The only documentation I have is installation instructions for the Intel Pentium 4 processor that aren't very revealing (despite being in 15 languages.) Here's my /proc/cpuinfo file: [76] ~ $ more /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 4 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz stepping : 3 cpu MHz : 3400.796 cache size : 2048 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 0 cpu cores : 1 fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 5 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm pni monitor ds_cpl est cid cx16 xtpr Thanks for the help! Jerry
