Dennis Clarke <dcl### [at] blastwaveorg> wrote:
>  Actually things are moving along neatly now.  I have the build process down
>  to a very deterministic procedure and am messing with compiler options to
>  create a 64-bit binary.  I expect that the binary will be for the UltraSparc
>  and it will be 64-bit.  I have no idea how well it will perform.  I expect
>  that www.blastwave.org will have a package with multiple architecture revs
>  ready to go .. real soon now.

  The 64-bit compile will be some percents slower than a 32-bit compile
(supposing both are made with Sun's CC compiler).

  The reason is simple: Pointers are twice as long and thus caches are filled
some percents faster, which directly causes the program to be some percents
slower.
  There's nothing magical about a 64-bit binary over a 32-bit binary
speedwise. As execution speed is concerned, they are practically equivalent
(only the filling of caches is what makes the difference).

  The real reason for using 64-bit binaries instead of 32-bit ones is that
with the former you can address more than 4 gigabytes of memory at a time,
as well as handle files larger than 4 gigabytes (in some cases there might
be some use for the 64-bit 'long' type).
  POV-Ray probably will not have any use for these features (ok, you might
make a scene which requires more than 4 gigabytes of memory, but that's
unlikely even if you *have* that much memory in your computer), so it's
mostly useless making a 64-bit compile which is some percents slower.

  If anything, it might have some academical interest.

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