Installing 64-bit linux distros on 32-bit hardware
Are there any advantages or disadvantages to installing a 64-bit linux distro, such as SuSE SLES 10 or RHEL 4/5 on 32-bit hardware?
I believe that the 32-bit distro will install run-time libraries and kernel that will limit the maximum process size to 2^32 bytes, and kernel maximum addressable memory to 4GB.
Similarly, the 64-bit distro will install run-time libraries and a kernel that increases the maximum process size to 2^64 bytes and 4 exabytes (2^64) of memory.
I'm not sure about the accuracy of the last statement, and that's why I'm here ;-)
I know that the 64-bit kernel, along with a processor with PAE support will allow the kernel to address more than 4GB of memory, but not sure if the installation of the 64-bit run-time libraries on 32-bit hardware will allow a 64-bit executable to access more than the default 2^32 address space of the processor.
Any discussions, corrections or clarifications are appreciated.
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