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(8) 32 and 64-bit Applications Previous Top Next

32-bit and 64-bit Applications



64-bit computer:

  • more memory and can run larger programs
  • 64 bit registers and does calculations  faster
  • faster I/O
  • can run 32-bit applications

32-bit computer:

  • limited to 2Gb program size
  • cannot run 64-bit applications

Compilers on 64-bit computer:

  • build 64-bit applications by default
  • can build 32-bit applications

If you try to run a 64-bit executable on a 32-bit computer, you will get an error message that says,
"Exec format error. Wrong Architecture".


andes:~rcomp1/softdev> gcc -m32 -c integrator.c
andes:~rcomp1/softdev> gcc -m32 -c linear_function.c
andes:~rcomp1/softdev> file integrator.o
integrator.o: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped
andes:~rcomp1/softdev> file linear_function.o
linear_function.o: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped
andes:~rcomp1/softdev> gcc -m32 -o integrator integrator.o linear_function.o -lgsl -lgslcblas
andes:~rcomp1/softdev> file integrator
integrator: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5,
dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped














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32-64bit.src  last modified Mar 19, 2007 Introduction Table of Contents
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