From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Mosberger Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 02:07:59 +0000 Subject: RE: [Linux-ia64] Linux-IA64 execution of ILP32 binaries Message-Id: List-Id: References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org >>>>> On Tue, 12 Mar 2002 18:00:55 -0800, "Smith, Phil" said: Phil> My primary question wasn't as much about supporting ILP32 Phil> development under Linux-IA64, but just executing binaries Phil> created under such an environment. The biggest question should Phil> surround the VM address space, which could be a subset of the Phil> Linux-IA64 map. Oh, that's easy: you can set the maximum virtual address space size of a task and its map-base to any value in the Linux kernel. That's what we use to enforce VM < 4GB for IA-32 tasks. Phil> If pointers are sign-extended, a single region Phil> in a 61-bit address area can accommodate the 32-bit range for Phil> x86. Obviously, things like big files could not be accessed Phil> without special APIs for the 32-bit developers. Commercial Phil> UNIX vendors (i.e., HP and Sun) have taken great pains to Phil> provide a migration path. It seems that not accommodating this Phil> creates GREATER market fragmentation, especially with more Phil> commercial products being available on Linux. It seems ironic Phil> that 16-bit DOS, Windows and 32-bit Windows will still run Phil> under Wine or Win64, but 32-bit Linux software on the market Phil> today won't run on Linux-IA64... You *can* run IA-32 binaries on IA-64 Linux. Just try realplay or some other x86-only application and I think you'll find it works just fine. --david