Updating from 32 bit to 64 bit

[DailyDose]

Hello! As many of us know, NI has made 64 bit available now for Linux in 2014.  My company is planning a software upgrade to a 64 bit Linux system for their servers.  We are currently using an earlier version of LabVIEW that is of course not 64 bit since 2014 is the first 64 bit available for Linux.  I know I can make it work with 32 bit on the new Linux OS.  But I'm wondering if upgrading the software to 2014 64 bit would just be the best option.  It's something that is going to have to happen anways, so why not? Right?  Here's where I'm stuck.  What kind of implications could this cause?  If I run and do a build for 64 bit, do I really need to worry about anything?  My first thought is perhaps some of the DLLs we're calling, or perhaps our custom drivers.  Will the build manage all of this and appropriately thread?  Am I making sense?

[BTC_Admin]

If you have existing 32 bit libraries & drivers that you'll have to continue using, I would stick with 32 bit LabVIEW for now as it still runs great on 64 bit Linux.  Many third party vendors still do not have 64 bit drivers or libraries to support their products (especially legacy products), it's a slow process. Mixing of 32 bit & 64 bit items might cause more headache (if it works at all) for you.  If you can get away without using 32-bit library calls or drivers then switching to 64 bit is a piece of cake.  (I even had some cases of using new 64 bit drivers provided by vendors which had so many bugs that we had to revert back to their 32 bit proven drivers which also required switching back to LabVIEW 32-bit.)

-BTC

[DailyDose]

I didn't even think of that.  Potential third party 64 bit bugs.  Assuming a 64 bit version even exists....  I feel like this suddenly became one of those 'DUN DUN DUN' moments.  A management conversation I'm not looking foward to.

[natasftw]

Honestly, I wouldn't change to 64-bit in Windows, let alone another OS.  32-bit LabVIEW for Windows gets the most support.  Toolkits and driver support gets much weaker from there.  I'd expect moving to a 64-bit version to offer more frustration than benefit until the 64-bit versions start to get the same level of support.  I'm honestly a bit surprised 32-bit still gets that much more support.  Is it even possible to buy a 32-bit system anymore?

[rolfk]

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@natasftw wrote:

Honestly, I wouldn't change to 64-bit in Windows, let alone another OS.  32-bit LabVIEW for Windows gets the most support.  Toolkits and driver support gets much weaker from there.  I'd expect moving to a 64-bit version to offer more frustration than benefit until the 64-bit versions start to get the same level of support.  I'm honestly a bit surprised 32-bit still gets that much more support.  Is it even possible to buy a 32-bit system anymore?

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It really depends what you mean! If you talk about the OS, 64 bit systems are pretty much the standard and you generally have to go through extra hassles to get a true 32 bit system installed.

If you talk about applications the standard is very different. Most applications out there are still 32 bit and most don't need 64 bit at all for their operation. They work without hassles on 64 bit systems, so the incentive for the programmers to move to 64 bit is not that great. If you want to go 64 bit, EVERYTHING from device driver interfaces that your application accesses to external 3rd party libraries needs to be fully 64 bit. You can NOT call 32 bit DLLs/shared libraries from a 64 bit process without something called thunking or out of process invocation, which in general is almost always more hassle than fully porting a library to 64 bit.

One single component not being available as 64 bit module, that an application can't exist without, will basically make it impossible to port that application to 64 bit even if everything else is available as 64 bit. This together with the fact that 32 bit applications usually simply work fine on 64 bit OSes, is the cause that 64 bit adaption isn't something that goes as fast as some people think it should. Also consider the fact that once you move an app to 64 bit you lock out every potential user that isn't running a 64 bit OS, unless you decide to support both a 32 bit and 64 bit version. And there are still quite some 32 bit installations around, even if you disregard the many Windows XP installations that still exist.

Basically providing only a 32 bit version of an application has for most applications still more advantages than disadvantages even nowadays.