what is 64bit processor?

[funkmuscle]

hey, I'm thinking of upgrading my system. are dual core cpus 64bit or do they make 32 bit dual core?
is it better to use 64bit for audio?

[SR]

hey, I'm thinking of upgrading my system. are dual core cpus 64bit or do they make 32 bit dual core?
is it better to use 64bit for audio?

I've been running 64bit at home for a couple of years now. The biggest challenge is dealing with apps that are only available in 32bit. They will still run, but it's a challenge to get them to interact with 64bit apps. One example would be trying to get a 32bit Windows app running in Wine to interact with Jack. Otherwise 64bit has been great for me and I think Linux is much further ahead in 64bit compatibility than Windows.

I can't really answer whether 64bit would be better for you, but you always have the option of running a 32bit OS on 64bit hardware.

[raboof]

are dual core cpus 64bit or do they make 32 bit dual core?

The number of cores and the word size (`number of bits') are largely unrelated.

[Havoc]

Intel has (had?) both type. The "Core duo" is a dual core 32bit and "Core 2 duo" is dual core 64bit. I think AMD only has 64bit dual cores. Running 64bit now for 3-4 years without any problem.

[raboof]

Intel has (had?) both type. The "Core duo" is a dual core 32bit and "Core 2 duo" is dual core 64bit.

Jep - and their 'Core Solo'/'Core 2 Solo' are the single-core variants, also available in both 32bit and 64bit (but rather uncommon, mostly used in laptops).

[funkmuscle]

thanx guys. I'm just afraid of switching to 64bit because I don't know if the apps I like to use like jconv and jack_convolve will work...
anyone using them?

[studio32]

What is better for a studio, 32 or 64 bits? What does the experts say?

[Claudio]

What is better for a studio, 32 or 64 bits? What does the experts say?

I would assume that if you're doing simple stuff like MIDI sequencing, then it doesn't matter. You won't notice a difference in performance. You might see the difference more in something like Ardour if you're processing a lot of tracks or if you're using a lot of soft synths and making automated or realtime changes. Obviously, the 64-bit processor will be able to process twice the amount of data at a time compared to a 32-bit processor. Also, you will be able to go beyond 4 GB on a 64-bit system, so if you need more RAM than 4 GB, then 64-bit is the way to go. This is just my opinion on the subject.

On the major distributions, practically all the apps found in 32-bit versions will also be available in 64-bit versions. My iMac G5 has a 64-bit PowerPC 970 processor and I have 64-bit Ubuntu/ppc on it. All of the apps that you would find on x86/x86_64 versions of Ubuntu are also available under PowerPC/PPC64 Ubuntu. So if they are available when it comes to different processor architectures, then you shouldn't have any problems finding your familiar apps in an x86_64 port compared to the 32-bit x86 port.

[qharley]

if you have a 64bit processor you will get better performance out of it running 64bit code. The main reason behind this is the ability to fetch a command in only one cycle, in stead of one or two for 32bit.

I saw a marked improvement CPU usage wise when I could finally move to 64bit Linux for audio.

With the new improvements for Jack and Wine, the 64 - 32 bridge problem should be all but history soon anyway.

[StudioDave]

With the new improvements for Jack and Wine, the 64 - 32 bridge problem should be all but history soon anyway.

That's a tasty statement, Quentin. Please tell us more about those improvements.

Best,

dp

[qharley]

I remember reading an email from the Jack development list stating that jackd 64bit will accept 32bit hosts soon (or already) making the leap from 32 to 64 bit possible.

[Havoc]

I remember reading an email from the Jack development list stating that jackd 64bit will accept 32bit hosts soon (or already) making the leap from 32 to 64 bit possible.

When was that? 2008? As I said before, 64bit has already happened a long time ago in linux land.

[qharley]

Absolutely. Now we just have to wait for the others to catch up. or, just use the native tools. I only installed wine again a few days ago to run a micro controller compiler, only available for windoze.

[morko]

I remember reading an email from the Jack development list stating that jackd 64bit will accept 32bit hosts soon (or already) making the leap from 32 to 64 bit possible.

What does this exactly mean? Can you run native 32 bit VST plugins in 64 bit linux? I understood it is impossible or atleast hard and havent even tried.

I think 64 bit is a good for audio computer. Some say it is only slight performance boost, but better something than nothing. With some native 32 bit applications there is extra work to get them running. Most of the apps work just great though. Renoise for example is only 32 bit, but to get it working I only needed to install few 32-bit libraries from Arch Aur repository.

Even if you have dual processor you can install 32 bit operating system. I dont know if the applications can make use of the dual cpu even though you run 32 bit OS? Does anyone know? I think atleast renoise can even though it is only 32 bit.

[spm_gl]

Even if you have dual processor you can install 32 bit operating system. I dont know if the applications can make use of the dual cpu even though you run 32 bit OS? Does anyone know?

The number of processors/cores and the word size are completely independent. You can have 4 32bit CPUs, or one 64bit. Or the other way around.
Whether an application can use more than one CPU depends on the programming.