[ale] 64-bit vs 32-bit?

[Ed Cashin]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Robert <rs at ale.spam.futz.org> wrote:
>>The only plus that I have seen it that I can run >4GB RAM. Since I use my
>>machine for editing and mastering audio I find that to be valuable.
>
> I do photo processing. When I had 4gb of ram, I often had to quit my RAW
> conversion software to free up memory to run the GIMP. I recently upgraded to
> 8gb, and am still running a 32 bit kernel. Now both apps can use up to 3.5gb
> of ram each and I can leave them both running. Yay!
>
> So, in response to the original poster: I think that unless you *know* you need
> more than 4gb of ram for a single app/process, you should be fine with a 32 bit
> kernel, even if you have more than 4gb of ram.

Is your kernel using PAE?  On the way to the full 64-bit technology,
there were a lot of stepping-stone technologies, and maybe you're
being helped by one.  Just curious.

-- 
  Ed Cashin <ecashin at noserose.net>
  http://noserose.net/e/
  http://www.coraid.com/