Well if this is the case, you probably should get an Opteron server *now* and just run 32-bit Linux on it until you're sure about the software. No point in buying a Xeon and then throwing the machine away in a year when you decide you need 64-bit for more speed.
That's a good point. I had forgotten about the option to run 32bit on an Operton. If we had 3GB or 4GB initially on an Opteron, we'd need bigmem for 32bit Linux, right?
This might work nicely since we'd factor in the penalty from PAE for now and have the performance boost from moving to 64bit available on demand. Not having to build another DB server in a year would also be nice.
FWIW, there are only two pieces of software that need 64bit aware for a typical server job. Kernel and glibc. Rest of the apps can do fine as 32 bits unless you are oracle and insist on outsmarting OS.
In fact running 32 bit apps on 64 bit OS has plenty of advantages like effectively using the cache. Unless you need 64bit, going for 64bit software is not advised.
Shridhar
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