# Intel Core 2 Duo

## cherring

What system architecture do I need to use for a Core 2 Duo CPU? x86?

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## Jointy

Hy,

try this. It's your decision to choice a 32 or 64Bit profile.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/Safe_Cflags#Intel_Core_2_Duo.2FQuad_.2F_Xeon_51xx.2F53xx

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## cherring

Many thanks for that   :Smile: 

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## defenderBG

i thought core 2 duo was 32 bit?

why having a 64bit on 32 bit processor?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_2_duo

Core 2 is an eighth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor produced by Intel and based on the Intel Core microarchitecture

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## SiberianSniper

Paragraph 4 of the wiki site:

 *Quote:*   

> Intel Core 2 processors feature Intel 64...

 

I'm running ~amd64 on mine, but really don't know if there is any advantage in going down to ~x86.  I've heard mixed reviews on that.

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## creidiki

x86 gets you less hair-pulling to make java and browser plugins work, (as well as some precompiled stuff that's only in 32-bit), but you lose on registers and better memory support for 4GB and above.

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## SiberianSniper

There are also some Linux games that only release binaries, and it's much easier to get these to work on 32-bit Gentoo installs... However, I'm an aerospace guy and XFOIL is much faster in 64-bit...  There are always tradeoffs, but both systems will do pretty much what you want them to once they're set up

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## cherring

Thanks for the input guys   :Smile: 

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## anjgentoo

 *SiberianSniper wrote:*   

> Paragraph 4 of the wiki site:
> 
>  *Quote:*   Intel Core 2 processors feature Intel 64... 
> 
> I'm running ~amd64 on mine, but really don't know if there is any advantage in going down to ~x86.  I've heard mixed reviews on that.

 

After my second Asus A8N32 with Amd 64 x2 board failed in one year (bios failure), I decided to change to Intel Core 2 duo and the board change went smooth, just a eth0 > eth2 number problem due to udev. I'm surprised the system worked so well after a complete hardware change like that. In 2 hours everything was OK.

First impressions (nothing recompiled with new correct march) :

- faster boot

- glxgears similar (full screen nvidia 7600GT 1920x1200) : 500 fps

- mencoder converting a vob DVD to mp4 : 100 fps instead of 60 fps

Conclusion : looks much faster for cpu intensive tasks

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## PaulBredbury

Here's a reminder to install sys-apps/microcode-ctl-1.17 - there was an update by Intel to the Core 2 Duo microcode in April 2007, to fix a rare crash.

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## Ingmarv

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> Here's a reminder to install sys-apps/microcode-ctl-1.17 - there was an update by Intel to the Core 2 Duo microcode in April 2007, to fix a rare crash.

 

Thanks, never heard of this before ...

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## bubbl07

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> Here's a reminder to install sys-apps/microcode-ctl-1.17 - there was an update by Intel to the Core 2 Duo microcode in April 2007, to fix a rare crash.

 

Wasn't even aware of that. I thought they fixed that bug in the next stepping of the CPU, but I'm glad to see they issued a fix for the existing CPUs.

Cheers.

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## irondog

 *creidiki wrote:*   

> x86 gets you less hair-pulling to make java and browser plugins work, (as well as some precompiled stuff that's only in 32-bit), 

  There is java for amd64: you don't need multilib stuff for java anymore. Sun has released amd64 binaries  :Smile: 

For plugins like flash which are provided in 32bit binaries only you can use nspluginwrapper. This works perfecly stable for me for flash 9.0. So, you can run a 64 bit Firefox with 32bit plugins.

For plugins other than flash I don't know how well it works, cause I've never used nspluginwrapper for different stuff.

Make sure you don't rely on stuff like win32codecs and amd64 is a good desktop profile.

 *Quote:*   

> but you lose on registers and better memory support for 4GB and above.

  Wrong again: You benefit from registers: you don't loose them, you gain them!

Instead of the stack, registers are used to pass integer arguments as a default calling convention. In theory this is possible on  x86 too, but x86 has a too big history to convert to a new calling convention.  :Smile:   :Smile: 

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## rtomek

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> Here's a reminder to install sys-apps/microcode-ctl-1.17 - there was an update by Intel to the Core 2 Duo microcode in April 2007, to fix a rare crash.

 

My BIOS, and probably also on most new motherboards already have that microcode update patch.  I did have to flash my BIOS to have it included, but I have an older motherboard.

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