x86-64 distributions on a athlon XP?

mercuryone · 12-13-2006, 05:39 AM

Is it possible (and stable) to run a x86-64 distribution on a athlon XP (32 bit) system?

I'm asking as according to wikipedia x86-64 "it is a superset of the Intel x86 architecture, which it natively supports."

thanx in advance!

jschiwal · 12-13-2006, 08:22 AM

No, but you can do the opposite, running a 32 bit distro on an x86_64.

mercuryone · 12-13-2006, 07:46 PM

Of course it wont work (x86-64) on a 32 bit system, 64 bits dont go into 32! duh!

But it does work the other way around (32 into 64 goes twice).

Thanx for the response!

jschiwal · 12-14-2006, 12:31 AM

The first 64 bit processor that Intel built wouldn't run 32bit software. When dell refused to build servers using the chip, they realized that they painted themselves into a corner and ended up getting the AMD64 design in a technology trade.