[CentOS] 32 Bit vs. 64 Bit Linux Server installation

Fri Nov 9 09:07:42 UTC 2007
Christopher Chan <christopher at ias.com.hk>

Simon Jolle wrote:
> Hi Centos Users
> 
> What are the advantages of 64 Bit and respective 32 Bit installation
> of Centos? With PAE 32 Bit installation can address huge amount of
> RAM. As a desktop system, I prefer 32 Bit installation because of
> teething troubles in 64 Bit Linux world.

Intel does hardware memory stuff now eh? I know that you do not get a 
performance slowdown with AMD whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit for 
anything over 1GB.

> 
> When would you choose 64 Bit and when 32 Bit? We are running mostly
> application and web services.

Amount of RAM but as you mention this new PAE thing...

> 
> Is this true that with 32 Bit architecture the kernel is limited to 1 GB RAM?

No. It is not. The issue is not kernel support but the cpu support of 
fast memory operations for locations above 1GB which is (was?) non 
existent on Intel-base cpus and architectures.