On 24.10.18 21:11, João Pais wrote:
Hello list,
I just noticed that pd 0.49 comes packed with 64b. I was interested to ask what are currently the biggest advantages. I imagine that lots of added memory capacity; but for example, is it still limited to only one processor?
64bit binaries are just this: binaries that can run natively on a 64bit OS. (read: it has nothing to do with the ability to use multiple CPUs, the precision of numbers within Pd, or the bugginess of your patches ;-)).
the only changes the user might notice when running a 64bit binary of Pd:
- Pd can use 64bit pointers to address memory. that means it could use
about 18.4 exabytes (provided you have a computer equipped with that), instead of a meagre 4GB as is the case with 32bit applications (and Windows would reservere another 512MB, so you could only use 3.5GB)
- Pd can use more features (registerse, instructions) of the CPU,
potentially speeding up the execution (regardless of the number of CPUs)
- Pd can use more modern frameworks provided by the OS. iirc, there are
some ASIO drivers which can only be accessed from 64bit applications.
I also notice that pd~ is in windows already for a while, I think I'll test it soon for the next version of my porting of Henke's granulator. I would like to know: is it guaranteed that parallel processes will run in different processors, or a bit of a luck game managed by the operating system?
the actual CPU assignment of a process is managed by the OS. this is actually not a bad thing. since the OS does CPU management anyhow, you might end up ensuring that a process is running on the same CPU as another process that - by mere chance - requested to run on that very CPU... also, if your hardware happens to only have a single CPU, it would be rather annoying if pd~ would insist on running on a CPU#3.
gafmsdf IOhannes