i assume that both the intel centrino and amd 64fx processors have new ways of processing code and such

is linux capable of utilizing the new ways in these things? especially in centrino, a 1.4 ghz centrino could easily equall 2.0 or above p4 ghz: will linux be able to do it in this way or just use the 1.4 ghz it is technically only able to do
perhaps i should rephrase the question: does the operating system determine how it will be able to use special features of a processor?

this same question applies to the 64 bit processors: are they compatible with linux and when will it be fully supported and utilized

also, does linux make use of hyperthreading in some new intel processors?



thx in advance

64 bit processing has been supported in Linux for years on architectures that had it previously, such as SPARC. ia64 has been supported for quite a while as well.

I believe hyperthreading is supported in the 2.6 kernel, or maybe it's a kernel patch set that provides this support.

I know little or nothing about the centrino.

Along the same lines, will the linux kernel 2.4.18 refuse to install, say, a network/ethernet card, simply because it is 64-bit? Or not see/detect parts of the computer because it is 64-bit?

If so, how would one get around the problem? (update the kernel, for instance?)