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I having been reading into the AMD Hammer processors, and have been reading up on the 64-bit long mode. Does anybody have links or maybe a boot loader on how to use that technology?

>On 2002-02-19 13:21:35, os_dev wrote:
>I having been reading into the AMD Hammer processors, and have been reading up on the 64-bit long mode. Does anybody have links or maybe a boot loader on how to use that technology?

Oh baby, now you're talkin'

Now, I'm not overly familiar with the AMD 64-bit
architecture, so bare with me.

Is the Hammer AMDs implementation of Itanium, or a
completely new 64-bit architecture?

If the former, then there are tutorials on Itanium
on Intel's and HP's pages (plus sandpile.org and
the likes). Also, through HP I was able to get a
(free!) CD with a Linux (I'm sure there's Win32
ports as well) IA64 emulator and development
environment. Quite essential for the 64-bit
OS-developer.

However, if the latter, and Hammer is, indeed, its
own 64-bit architecture, then check out AMDs site,
'cuz I swear I'd found, in the past, a CD deal
similar to the one I got from HP. I'll see if I can
find that again because, in all honestly, I'd rather
develop for AMD chips myself (AMDs proven their
supperiority over Intel thus far... I wanna see
what they can do, given a chance).

Also, I do remember hearing something (a _long_ time
ago, so I don't know if this is still acurate)
that said that Intel's 64-bit chips still booted
up in an x86 mode, which means the boot-up
code would be similar, except instead of a jump
to protected mode, you'd jump into this new
64-bit, new instruction set mode (strange concept,
really

Anyway, let me know if you find more info, 'cuz I
plan on writting for the new 64-bit chips myself.

Jeff

>On 2002-02-19 13:21:35, os_dev wrote:
>I having been reading into the AMD Hammer processors, and have been reading up on the 64-bit long mode. Does anybody have links or maybe a boot loader on how to use that technology?

Oh baby, now you're talkin'

Now, I'm not overly familiar with the AMD 64-bit
architecture, so bare with me.

Is the Hammer AMDs implementation of Itanium, or a
completely new 64-bit architecture?

If the former, then there are tutorials on Itanium
on Intel's and HP's pages (plus sandpile.org and
the likes). Also, through HP I was able to get a
(free!) CD with a Linux (I'm sure there's Win32
ports as well) IA64 emulator and development
environment. Quite essential for the 64-bit
OS-developer.

However, if the latter, and Hammer is, indeed, its
own 64-bit architecture, then check out AMDs site,
'cuz I swear I'd found, in the past, a CD deal
similar to the one I got from HP. I'll see if I can
find that again because, in all honestly, I'd rather
develop for AMD chips myself (AMDs proven their
supperiority over Intel thus far... I wanna see
what they can do, given a chance).

Also, I do remember hearing something (a _long_ time
ago, so I don't know if this is still acurate)
that said that Intel's 64-bit chips still booted
up in an x86 mode, which means the boot-up
code would be similar, except instead of a jump
to protected mode, you'd jump into this new
64-bit, new instruction set mode (strange concept,
really

Anyway, let me know if you find more info, 'cuz I
plan on writting for the new 64-bit chips myself.

Jeff

Actually, AMD is creating a new overlay to the existing
IA-32 architecture and calling it x86-64. Itanium's own IA-64
has turned out to be a sort of flop, as reports from
http://www.anandtech.com report that Intel intends to make
a x86-64 processor itself, codenamed Yamhill.

With x86-64, two new modes exist, in a new "long mode".
You can run either in Compatibility mode, with support for
16, 32, or 64 bit programs. Also you get true 64-bit mode,
which would require a recompile of all current programs.

Basically, I have no idea how to switch to long mode from
real or protected mode. In fact, I haven't found anything
yet on the subject. I was just wondering if anyone else
might know something on the subject.

>On 2002-02-19 13:21:35, os_dev wrote:
>I having been reading into the AMD Hammer processors, and have been reading up on the 64-bit long mode. Does anybody have links or maybe a boot loader on how to use that technology?

Read http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content ... erview.pdf for info on Hammer.
Appendix C contains a code example for enabling the new Long Mode.

More docs can be found at http://www.x86-64.org

/David