[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for
this link. ]
“When it comes to large databases, the hybrid x86-64
architecture platform is strongly recommended over the 32-bit x86
platform. 64-bit platforms can access more than 4GB of memory
without workarounds. With 32-bit platforms there are several issues
that require workaround solutions for databases that use lots of
memory, for example refer to Using Very Large Memory (VLM). If you
are not sure whether you are on a 32-bit or 64-bit hardware, run
dmidecode or cat /proc/cpuinfo. Running uname -a can be misleading
since 32-bit Linux kernels can run on x86-64 platforms.“The RHEL 3/4 smp kernel can be used on systems with up to 16 GB
of RAM…”