On Wednesday 30 March 2005 10:01, Ville-Pertti Keinonen wrote:
> Back when I got my first amd64 machine...

=:-p

> Note that it isn't memory allocation and deallocation that is slower (on
> amd64, memory allocation is probably faster, since the allocation
> pointer is kept in a register), but programs that use fairly large
> amounts of memory.  32-bit vs. 64-bit might be the difference between
> everything fitting in L2 or not...

Yes. I was thinking that the GC would be slower due to worse cache use in 
64-bit. I used the phrase "de/allocation" as I was applying it to both C++ 
and OCaml.

This raises the question of exactly which OCaml types incur 64-bit quantities 
in the run-time. My guess:

  int (d'oh)
  constant (polymorphic) variant constructor?
  non-constant (polymorphic) variant constructor
  records (except those with all-float fields)
  tuples
  arrays

But isn't there quite a low limit on the number of constant variant type 
constructors allowed? So maybe they're squeezed into something a little 
smaller...

-- 
Dr Jon D Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd.
Objective CAML for Scientists
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/products/ocaml_for_scientists