Re: [PATCH v6 2/9] x86/resctrl: Require 64-bit x86 for resctrl support

[Dave Hansen]

On 8/20/26 10:01, Luck, Tony wrote:
>> To be specific, my comment about RDT not being a "server" feature was made with Apollo
>> Lake [1] in mind. That system showed up in scenarios where servers do not typically venture
>> and per [1] its max memory size (8GB) is significantly less than what servers can support.
> Even with just 8GB you should really use 64-bit.

Just in practice, 32-bit is very lightly tested. We're generally not
even supporting new CPU features on 32-bit even if the hardware supports
it. Think of shadow stacks, for instance.

It's actually increasingly hard to even find a modern 32-bit distro.

So it really has nothing to do with high memory. It just practically
that the arch/x86 32-bit code is increasingly there for legacy reasons.
Its testing goes down every day and the testing of *new* features is for
all intents and purposes zero.

Honestly, the only people who complain about 32-bit support going away
are folks who "test" it regularly. It's quite rare to see anyone
actually "using" a 32-bit system.