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How can I determine if my computer/operating system is 64-bit?

Title   How to determine if your OS is 64-bit compliant
Author Pete Huckelba, StataCorp

Windows

Windows 10: press the 'Windows' key on your keyboard to open the Start menu. Click on Control Panel. Click on System. The System type: line will detail the operating system type:

Windows 8: press the 'Windows' key on your keyboard to return to the Start screen. Type control panel and press enter to launch. Click on System and Security -> System. The System type: line will detail the operating system type:

Windows 7: click Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System. The System type: line will detail the operating system type:

Windows Vista (Windows Vista is no longer supported by Stata, but we leave this information here for completeness): click Start -> Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System. The System type: line will detail the operating system type:

Windows XP (Windows XP is no longer supported by Stata, but we leave this information here for completeness): click Start -> Run and type dxdiag. If a Windows dialog box is displayed asking if you want to verify your drivers, you can safely click No and continue. When the program has finished loading, you should see something similar to one of the following images:

The Operating System line refers to Windows <some version> x64 or 64-bit edition. The last image above specifies the processor Itanium, which is a 64-bit processor.

As of Stata 16, only 64-bit Windows is supported.

Mac

Select About this Mac from the Apple menu. The text beside macOS will give the operating system version, and the Processor line will detail the processor type.

about this mac

macOS is a 64-bit operating system. Stata for Mac is available for both Macs with Apple Silicon and Macs with Intel processors.

All currently shipping Macs have a 64-bit processor and a 64-bit operating system.

Linux

Linux users should type the uname command. Depending on the platform, you may see

[cph@adkins ~]$ uname -a
Linux adkins.stata.com 2.6.32-504.12.2.el6.i686 #1 SMP Wed Mar 11 19:05:53 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

[cph@charlotte ~]$ uname -a
Linux charlotte.stata.com 2.6.32-504.12.2.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Mar 11 22:03:14 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

In the above listing, 'charlotte' (x86_64 GNU/Linux) is 64-bit compliant, 'adkins' (i386 GNU/Linux) is only a 32-bit platform.

Unix (Oracle (Sun) Solaris, IBM-AIX)

  • Oracle (Sun) Solaris (Solaris is no longer supported by Stata, but we leave this information here for completeness)

    Sun's platforms transitioned to 64-bit over a period of time, making identifying the platform for 64-bit compliance tricky. Sun has stated:

    Sun has implemented its 64-bit operating system in phases. The Solaris 2.5 Operating Environment provided support for increased precision with 64-bit math and also included support for 64-bit asynchronous I/O. The Solaris 2.6 Operating Environment added support for large datasets with large (1 Terabyte) filesystems while allowing co-existence of 32-bit and 64-bit files. Beginning with the Solaris 7 Operating Environment, Sun introduced support for large virtual address spaces with a full 64-bit operating system. Sun began shipping 64-bit hardware in 1995. By phasing in operating system support for 64-bits Sun has provided 64-bit features as the market has demanded them while guaranteeing compatibility for existing 32-bit applications.

    To determine what kind of binaries your Solaris machine can run, try the following:

    eden:/home/cph: isainfo -v
    64-bit sparcv9 applications
    32-bit sparc applications

    You can see that this Solaris machine is capable of running 32-bit as well as 64-bit applications. If isainfo fails, running a 64-bit application on your Sun will generally not be possible, unless of course isainfo is not in your path or has not been installed. You can also use the uname command to glean more information:

    eden:/home/cph: uname -a
    SunOS eden 5.8 Generic_108528-05 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10

    lagrange:/usr/users/cph: uname -a
    SunOS lagrange 5.5.1 Generic_103640-29 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-1


    SunOS/Solaris versions map to the following:
    SunOS SOLARIS
    5.3 2.3
    5.4 2.4
    5.5 2.5
    5.5.1 2.5.1
    5.6 2.6
    5.7 or greater is 64-bit compliant 2.7 or greater is 64-bit compliant

    While all UltraSparc processors are capable of 64-bit computing, the OS release level may be the limiting factor. In the above excerpt, 'eden' (SunOS 5.8) is a fully compliant 64-bit platform, and 'lagrange' (SunOS 5.5.1) is a 64-bit UltraSparc limited to 32-bit computing.
  • IBM-AIX (IBM-AIX is no longer supported by Stata, but we leave this information here for completeness)

    The getconf command will return the configuration of your machine. Since you are looking only for the kernel parameters, you should type

    [cph@anna ~]$ getconf -a | grep KERN
    KERNEL_BITMODE: 64

    If that fails or does not return a result, try the file command.

    [cph@anna ~]$ file /usr/lib/boot/unix*
    /usr/lib/boot/unix: 64-bit XCOFF executable or object module not stripped
    /usr/lib/boot/unix_64: 64-bit XCOFF executable or object module not stripped
    /usr/lib/boot/unix_mp: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped
    /usr/lib/boot/unix_up: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped

    [cph@ozona ~]$ file /usr/lib/boot/unix*
    /usr/lib/boot/unix: symbolic link to /usr/lib/boot/unix_up.
    /usr/lib/boot/unix_kdb: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped
    /usr/lib/boot/unix_up: executable (RISC System/6000) or object module not stripped

    We can see that 'anna' is a 64-bit capable platform, and 'ozona' is only 32-bit.