Upgraded Computer; 32-bit OS, 64-bit CPUs...

[jkbeard]

I've been running Absoft 32-bit 10.0 on a dual Athalon MP 2200+ system that I've had for years, and have just upgraded to a computer with dual Intel 64-bit quad-core CPUs.  I stayed with 32-bit Windows XP.  I did a quick check and my default atlas is labeled Pentium III.

When I look at the upgrade form, I see that there is a check box for a 32-bit system or a 64-bit system.  I presume that you mean the OS, not the hardware.  What I would like to do is to have my compiler back end leverage my new IA64 capability.  Is this possible with 32-bit Windows XP?

One of my speed-intensive applications is a small program that really needs a 64-bit register in the MMP register file for best speed.  Right now we have several builds of this program depending on the architecture, one GNU C' excellent 32-bit back end for 32-bit Linux and Windows XP, an assembly language 64-bit engine, etc.  Can we link an object file from GNU C with the Abosoft 10.1 compiler?

Is it possible to have 64-bit long long integers in a C compiler that works with Abosoft 10.1?

OK, so I have four questions in one post. :-\  Please do whatever you feel comfortable with any one of them, or any combination.

[Mike Linacre]

James, to answer your last question: "Is it possible to have 64-bit long long integers in a C compiler that works with Absoft 10.1?" - Yes, it is always possible to define a 64-bit long long as an array of 2x32-bit integers and then to do 64-bit arithmetic (in software) on them. This is necessary when computing direct-access locations for I/O with huge disk files. I use a C-subroutine to do the 64-bit arithmetic in software.
And a partial answer to another question: Absoft 10 uses the standard Microsoft Linker.

[jkbeard]

That's a bittersweet answer, because use of a defined type means that the back end will follow your code that executes the 64-bit arithmetic as multiple precision 32-bit code.  That does the job arithmetically but doesn't get the speed of native back-end (assembly level) code, and speed is first, second, and third in priority in my application.  Thus I may develop and maintain under Abosoft but compile and link under Cygwin; this is how I handle my Linux builds now.

Now, I'm running twin Clovertowns (quad core Xenons with IA64 instruction set, EM64T addressing) running on 32-bit Windows XP.  My default atlas is Pentium III.  Is this right?  Should I have gotten quad-core Opterons?  What if I load my copy of 64-bit Windows XP?

I presume that I check the 32-bit box when I upgrade because my OS is 32-bit?