On Saturday 08 March 2008 15:51:30 Rory Walsh wrote:
> With the core 2 duo then I can install ubuntu studio 64 which would
> provide extra umph for most applications?

Yes. Wikipedia[1] says the amd64 architecture has not only more general 
purpose registers, but the number of XMM registers is also increased (I don't 
know if csound makes use of these, anyone knows if it does?). There are other 
performance improvements, too, see the wikipedia page for more details.

> When building software on 
> 64bit systems are there any special considerations that need to be taken
> into account?

By now I'd say no. Most software is already 64-bit compatible. I'm no expert, 
though. I've been using a Core 2 with 64-bit debian on it without any trouble 
for a couple of months.


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amd64#Architectural_features

-- 
Felipe Sateler