<QUOTE> What you probably don't know is that when you run a "regular" (i.e., 32 bit) program on a 64 bit system, it runs in an emulator called WoW64 ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384249%28VS.85%29.aspx ) so you are adding one more layer of overhead, kinda like running in a virtual machine inside of Win7 </QUOTE>
The technical detail here is correct (when you run a 32-bit program on Windows-64, it runs under WoW64), but the conclusion is not. It's a relatively common myth. 32-bit programs actually run a bit FASTER on properly configured Windows-64 systems than they do on 32-bit systems. Try it. You'll see. There is no emulation required to run ordinary 32-bit programs on 64-bit Windows systems. When x64 support was designed, a key part of that design was to ensure that 32-bit programs could run directly on a CPU in 64-bit mode without any emulation or change to the 32-bit program. Thus WoW64 is not any sort of "emulator" at all, and certainly not like a virtual machine (in structure or in effect). It is, in fact, a very thin "thunking" layer that does nothing but change 32-bit program addresses to 64-bit addresses during system service calls. FYI I'm not guessing or relying on internet lore about any of this: I've been through just about every line of code in Wow-64... and there's not a lot of it. Peter K1PGV _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
