2016-08-07 20:34 GMT+08:00 Marc Feeley <feeley@iro.umontreal.ca>:
Forcing 64 bit “words” on a 32 bit machine should be relatively straightforward to implement, but I question the utility of this (factor of 2 space usage).  Better would be to change the object representation so that the header of objects would be always 64 bits (or better, split into a 32 bit length and 32 bit type and GC flags).  The implementation complexity of both is about the same (roughly 2 days of work). 

Ah, I think you corrected a limited understanding on my behalf - actually it's the object header that would need to be tweaked, rather than the object representation, as the object header contains string and u8vector lengths.
 
However, too much work for me right now given the low need for this feature.

Great - right - this was only a question.
 
Aren’t 32 bit architectures pretty much a thing of the past?  These days, even embedded systems are 64 bit architectures.

I would have hoped they were!


Tell me a single commodity ARM board on the market with a 64bit chip. I'm not aware of a single one.

On the X86 embedded side, there are some Intel Atom processors that do 64bit.

The world abounds of 32-bit boards however and they start from like 10 USD.


Thanks for answering that it indeed is possible