[Novalug] 32 bit Linux on 64 bit Machine

[Tom Rhodes]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 04:22:02 -0500
James Ewing Cottrell 3rd <JECottrell3 at Comcast.NET> wrote:

> Yes, but more to the point, isn't the instruction set for the Itanium a 
> totally different animal?
> 
> My answer to the original question would be yes, you can run a 32 bit OS 
> on the 64 bit version of the same chip. Thus, 32 bit solaris runs on 64 
> bit sparcs, and 32 bit Linux runs on 64bit x86 CPUs.

A bug in the Sparc64 CPUs (Ultra1 167MHz versions?) forced the
downgrade to 32-bit in Solaris.  I'm not sure what a better work
around would be, but I think, due to endian issues, you need to
have at least some items working in a 64-bit mode.

-- 
Tom Rhodes