cpu or cpu's???just a bit of info!!!

I find questions on most forums i haunt, and see answers that are questionable about dual core access or not...

Linux has kernels that recognise dual cores, they have kernels that recognise 64 bit, they also have kernels that recognise dual cpu's and can access dual core-dual cpu's...You also have access to hyper-threading on the intel P4 processor(or later ones that support this) using smp...

If you install 32bit kernels on a 64bit cpu, it will tell you its a 64bit cpu and give you the cpu id and data info but will not utilise the 64bit instruction sets...
If you install 64bit kernel on a 32bit cpu machine, it wont work, it will crash....

a lot of distro's only install 32bit kernels that are listed as x86 kernels...
these also have different extensions;
i386, i486, i586, i686, included into this is smp to allow multi-threading...
Linux can handle upto 16 cpu's with the right kernel(you would have to compile your own kernel for this configuration), but there are servers out there that are actually clusters running between 36 cpu's and over 250 cpu's...

With 64bit cpu's you can use i386 to i686 or amd x86_64(on an AMD cpu) or if you have an intel 64bit cpu then you would use the IA64 kernel...
Again i say "If your cpu is not a 64bit cpu then dont install this kernel, it wont work"...



Just because you have a dual core cpu, it doesnt mean it will run faster, lots of applications dont recognise multiple threads or parallel processing and as such wont use both cores, they will use one core and the other will stay idle...
If you have used or tried an application called boinc(Berkeley open infrastructure to network computing) you would notice that the application is running two instances of work at once, this is because it only runs one instance to a core...but the application an allow two instances to run at once...

You can compile(build) your own kernel and incorporate the instructions that you require...you can alter nearly all states of the processor to some degree along with other servers like graphics, network and so forth...


There is a lot of information out there about the linux kernel, but for most users that is not important to them...

Basically what i am trying to do here is let you understand that you must get the correct version of a distro for your cpu... This will reduce the amount of stress and frustration when installing linux for the first time...

Best of luck, and lets go penguin mad...

 

Old news. x64 CPUs (64 bit) are backwards compatible, meaning they can run 32 bit and 16 bit applications (and probably 16 bit operating systems, though I doubt anyone will buy a 64 bit CPU to run Windows 95 or 3.11). x86 CPUs are also backwards compatible, but they can't execute newer, x64 instructions.
The limitation is also in the operating system. 32 bit operating systems can run 32 bit and 16 bit applications, using 32 bit and 16 bit instructions. x64 operating systems can run 64 bit, 32 bit and 16 bit (except Windows, where they can only do 64 and 32) applications.
Not a miracle discovery. However, I advise people to install whatever it's best for their computers. x64 should go with x64 and x86 with x86.

 

fade to black, it may be old news, for both of us, but the amount of newcomers to linux that dont have this understanding is rising as linux becomes more widely known...
The problem with not understanding the difference can create a lot of stress for some, and as the idea of assisting another to get a linux distro running can be frustrating when others give information that is inaccurate can cause problems in itself, i was trying to give a little info that can go a long way...

now windows and linux have no connection when installing a linux operating system, and 16 bit in linux, oops no go there, it was originally built using a 32 bit cpu, in fact an 80386 processor, so it has nothing to do with windows, 3.1, 3.11, 95 or whatever...

an 64 bit cpu contains all the x86 instructions plus 64 bit instructions(which 64 bit instructions depends upon the cpu)...and as such you can run 32 bit linux upon a 64 bit machine, with more applications available at this stage...
but then thats more my opinion and will get some hard core 64 bit ppl carrying on...