64 Bit OS

[Adam Vande More]

>
> Yes.
>
> For historical reason, because amd was the first on the market to
> produce 64 bit CPU, it is called amd64.
>

It went by x86-64 while in development which is why some Linux distro's use
that term.  Sometimes you'll get a question like "Why don't you use the
x86_64 naming convention like the rest of Linux?".  (There is more than one
thing wrong with that question)  AMD64 is what x86-64 officially became.
Intel doesn't technically use AMD64, but instead uses a compatible 64 bit
instruction set.

As far was what the OP should use, depends on the CPU.  Not all Xeon's
support AMD64 but any recent ones should.  I'm not all up on my Dell models,
but I think the 1950 shouldn't have any troubles with AMD64.  However at the
end of the day your choices are AMD64 or i386 as ia64 is for itanium's.  The
Itanium instruction set is completely different than AMD64 and no amount of
coaxing will make it work.



-- 
Adam Vande More