32 vs 64 bit CPUs - How does Puppy do it?

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PaulBx1
Posts: 2312
Joined: Sat 17 Jun 2006, 03:11
Location: Wyoming, USA

32 vs 64 bit CPUs - How does Puppy do it?

#1 Post by PaulBx1 »

After running on Puppy since version 2.0, I have been playing with "full featured" (i.e., fat) distros. I put openSuse on a flash drive and was trying to boot it on another computer, when it told me I have a 64 bit kernel and that was a 32 bit machine (I had built my install from a 64 bit live CD).

I never had to worry about that with Puppy, so I'm wondering what the trick is? It's not good enough to just get a 32 bit kernel, but still run 64-bit everything else, right? Is Puppy built for 32 bit, and just runs compatibility mode in 64-bit machines?

This is not even getting into multi-processor machines...

I realize this is only peripherally related to Puppy, but I'm hoping someone here can tell me how Puppy manages to be so universal.

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piratesmack
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed 16 Sep 2009, 14:22

#2 Post by piratesmack »

You can run a 32-Bit OS on a 64-Bit (x86_64) CPU, but you can't run a 64-Bit OS on a 32-Bit (x86) CPU.

Puppy is 32-Bit (except for fatdog64), so it can run on both.

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