James Muller ([email protected]) commented on
performance comparisons between 32-bit and 64-bit x86/x86-64
processors:
> The moral of the post (at bottom) is that taking advantage of 64-bit
> Stata is justified on grounds of accessing huge amounts of memory, but
> having the power to access more than can be accessed under 32-bit Stata
> comes at the cost of speed.
This is not necessarily true. Benchmarks do not always accurately
predict the way real-world applications behave. In our testing,
64-bit Stata running on a 2 GHz Opteron performs at roughly the
same speed as 32-bit Stata running on a 3 GHz P4.
There is another post in the thread on FreeBSD referenced by James
which provides another viewpoint along with some explanation
for the speed differences discussed in that thread:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-amd64/2005-July/005609.html
<http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-amd64/2005-July/005609.html>
Regarding the use of both 32-bit and 64-bit Stata versions, James
wrote
> The updated binaries for the Stata progam itself are available from the
> Stata website, for all OS's and both 32-bit and 64-bit on Win and Unix
> Stata. Depending on legalities, and on how the binaries read the
> licencing information saved on registration/input of serial number, it
> may be feasible to use both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions on the same
> computer, using whichever is most efficient for your purpose.
Although I believe users will be best-served by using native 64-bit
applications on 64-bit machines, users who wish to use more than
one type of Stata may purchase a license for an additional platform
for a nominal charge.
--Alan
([email protected])
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