iraf.net

Hello,

We have a new Opteron machine (a 64 bit processor)
and, although it runs the 32 bit version of IRAF,
we were wondering if a 64 bit native version might
be significantly faster.

Before I go and re-compile IRAF, I wanted to inquire
if this had been done successfully elsewhere. Do you
know of any impediments that would cause a compile
to fail? I'm thinking of something like an assumption
of 32 bit integers somewhere in the code.

Since I see that Mac OS X is supported (also 64 bit),
I'm guessing that it should be possible.

For the record, our computer is running Fedora Core 2
(kernel 2.6.6) on a dual CPU Opteron (x86_64 architecture).

Thanks for your help.

Frank Summers


Space Telescope Science Institute 410-338-4749
3700 San Martin Dr 410-338-4767 (fax)
Baltimore, MD 21218 summers@stsci.edu
http://terpsichore.stsci.edu/~summers/

Hi Frank,
The assumptions about the sizes of integers/pointers are all
throughout the system and are just one reason IRAF isn't quite
64-bit compatible. The 32-bit binaries will generally run, however
there are known issues with e.g. 64-bit filesystems. Getting
IRAF to take full advantage of 64-bit is a major project and more
than just recompiling the system. Unfortunately, work on this project
is not yet on the schedule. Hope this helps.Regards,
Mike Fitzpatrick