[plug] Linux hardware compatibility

[Cameron Patrick]

Craig Foster wrote:

> > - the 5 (five) series Intel chips with hyperthreading.  (I 
> > don't want to start an AMD vs Intel flame war here - and I 
> > consider that going to AMD's 64bit architecture is too early 
> > since there is little true 64 bit software yet.)

That's mainly true of the Windows world; almost all of Debian has been
compiled to run natively on AMD64 with compatability mode packages for
the ones which won't (e.g. openoffice; java; flash).  I presume that
other 64-bit distributions do something similar.

> It's not 64-bit software that makes the big speed jump. It's mainly the
> onboard memory controller of a AMD 64.

In 64-bit mode the AMD64 has more registers available, which can make
a further speed increase (~30% in some cases); while for some software
the added bloat of 64-bit pointers can make things slower.

Cameron.