For now? Not much. Unfortunately, it's hard to get past "apples and
oranges". First, your 64-bit processor would have to be the same speed as
the 32-bit processor to which you are comparing it, which seems unlikely.
The faster processor will be more performant by definition. So, yes, that
right there gives you some performance boost.

Then there's the OS... I believe that you would need a 64-bit version of
your OS, although I frankly don't recall the article I read about this. I
don't see it significantly helping performance.

Then you have your binaries compiled from your COBOL, and your Eloquence
DBMS, which I assume will run in a compatibility mode, which isn't free, and
will cost some performance. Does your compiler vendor offer a 64-bit
version? Does Eloquence? If so, you have a data migration project. That
said, if you have a data item that requires less than 32-bits, the
additional bitness does you no good, and arguably costs tiny bits of
performance.

So, you may not be able to get the full benefit from moving to 64-bit,
because not everything may move to native 64-bit. If not, you are probably
better off getting a faster 32-bit processor, if possible. But expect to see
32-bit processors go the way of all flesh. If you can move to 64-bit
everything, then you at least get the full benefit of a faster CPU.

Greg Stigers
this space for rent

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Osborne" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 2:28 PM
Subject: 64 bit


> Hi All,
>
> Though I'd ask the list about 64 bit processors now that AMD is selling
them a
> commidity prices. For a COBOL, Eloquence, multi user transaction
processing
> application, what sort of performance boosts would once expect to see from
a
> 64bit processor?
>
> Pete

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