InfoWorld: The Great 64-bit Shootout

“To paraphrase Benjamin Disraeli, there are lies, damn lies, and
benchmarks. Synthetic CPU tests can provide numbers pointing one
way or the other and can help unmask weaknesses and strengths in
chip architectures, but what matters most is how the processors
perform in production.

“Last month, I used real-world, application-based benchmarks to
test a Dell PowerEdge server sporting the spanking new Xeon with
EM64T (Extended Memory 64 Technology), otherwise known as Intel’s
answer to AMD’s Opteron. But the Intel processor was so fresh, we
had to stick with 32-bit benchmarks and postpone tests of the
chip’s 64-bit x86 capabilities, which are based on, but not
identical to, the AMD’s x86-64 standard…”

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