[SciPy-user] 64 bit and 32 bit on Ubuntu

[Kurt Smith]

Hi list,

I've recently acquired a new Ubuntu system, and unfortunately some 3rd
party software I'd like to use won't work under the 64 bit version of
the OS, yet.  It's not a deal breaker, however, and I'm willing to
work around it as long as there are compelling reasons to use 64 bit
for numerical work, specifically under scipy, etc.  I'm not well
versed in the low-level pros and cons of 64 bit vs 32 bit, esp. as to
how it affects scipy performance.  Can you enlighten me?  I"m on an
Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.16 GHz, E8500, 4 GB RAM.  Will using 64 bit yield
great benefits running scipy/numpy code automatically, or will it
require fine-tuning on my part?  Will 64 bit yield benefits besides
having a larger address space (besides the fact that my 4 GB RAM is
still addressable by 32 bits, anyway)?


Thanks for your input,

Kurt