[linux-audio-user] Re: AMD64 question: update

2006/7/11, Paul Davis <paul@linuxaudiosystems.com>:
> On Tue, 2006-07-11 at 14:54 +0200, Arnold Krille wrote:
> > Second: If you have a 64bit processor you definitly want to make use
> > of it. Most apps nowadays calculate with double-numbers. these run a
> > lot faster on 64bit.
> not really, they don't. floating point is done on a different processor.
> greater memory bandwidth on some processors/motherboards etc. can make
> working with 80-bit floats faster, but a 64 bit CPU itself has no real
> effect.

Well, I _know_ that 64bit is faster: Here at work I have dual-Xeon's
with 2.8GHz, my laptop is a Turion64 with 1.8GHz. The same computation
(evaluating scientific data from time-of-flight/lifetime experiments)
on the same data-files is significant slower on the work-pc's (almost
factor 2). As my threads are one thread for computation and others for
loading and saving the data, it is really a comparison of two single
processors, where the faster one does even the IO-work itself...

> also, i don't know many apps that use 80 bit FP, for audio or anything
> else that matter. there are some, but not many.

We will switch to 64bit here at work the next time we buy computers
because they _are_ faster. (even more as we are starting a project
with amd :-) )

Have a nice day,

Arnold

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