Athlon64 compatible with FreeBSD and WinXP SP2 ?

Justin Sane

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Aug 4, 2005, 8:43:47 AM8/4/05

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I'd like to buy a computer with an Athlon64 CPU.
I use FreeBSD and WinXP SP2, will it work fine?
I heard one needs a special CD of Windows to run on top of a 64bit CPU...
Thanks,

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Justin.
http://www.opera.com/m2/

Marc Hulsebosch

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Aug 4, 2005, 9:23:18 AM8/4/05

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Justin Sane wrote:
> I'd like to buy a computer with an Athlon64 CPU.
> I use FreeBSD and WinXP SP2, will it work fine?
> I heard one needs a special CD of Windows to run on top of a 64bit CPU...
> Thanks,
>

Unlike Intels Itanium, the Athlon64 CPU's are still compatible with
normal x86 code. So FreeBSD and XP should work just fine (just like all
other operating systems). Your CPU will be treated like any normal 32
bit CPU There is also a special edition of Windows XP: Windows XP x64
Edition, which is 64 bit, and supports all the new features of an
Athlon64. Though it is still buggy, this is what you should buy if you
want to get the most out of your processor.

I'm quite sure FreeBSD also has a 64 Bit version, because just about
every Linux distro has one too.

Marc

Philip Paeps

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Aug 4, 2005, 9:47:50 AM8/4/05

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Justin Sane <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
> I'd like to buy a computer with an Athlon64 CPU.
> I use FreeBSD and WinXP SP2, will it work fine?
> I heard one needs a special CD of Windows to run on top of a 64bit CPU...

I don't know about Microsoft, but FreeBSD will work fine on Athlon64
processors. You want to download the amd64 version. The i386 version will
work too, but you won't be able to use the 64bit features of the processor
then.

- Philip

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Philip Paeps Please don't email any replies
phi...@paeps.cx I follow the newsgroup.

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Justin Sane

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Aug 4, 2005, 10:09:39 AM8/4/05

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Thank you guys, these are good news :)

Em Thu, 04 Aug 2005 10:23:18 -0300, Marc Hulsebosch <Marci...@gmail.com>
escreveu:

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Justin.
http://www.opera.com/m2/

Bill Laird

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Aug 5, 2005, 11:30:48 AM8/5/05

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Justin Sane wrote:
> I'd like to buy a computer with an Athlon64 CPU.
> I use FreeBSD and WinXP SP2, will it work fine?
> I heard one needs a special CD of Windows to run on top of a 64bit CPU...
> Thanks,
>

Have standard 32 bit versions of FreeBSD 5.4, Win XP sp2 and Slackware
10.1 aboard this system and all work fine.

Win XP-X64, FreeBSD and Suse 64 bit versions also have been tried and
work OK

I'm sing a gigabyte motherboard - support for other motherboards may vary...

--

de Bill VK2BLA
AMD64 - FreeBSD 5.4

'The road less travelled'