"https is faster on amd64?"

[Chuck Swiger]

On Feb 6, 2011, at 2:14 AM, kellyremo wrote:
> http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2011/01/31/dispelling-the-new-ssl-myth.aspx
> 
> according to the "SSL Performance" table it says that the transactions per second is 2-3 times better using 64bit kernels opposite to 32bit kernels?
> 
> is this true, or i am just misunderstanding something

Sort of, although you're partially misunderstanding something.

SSL cryptography, like most highly math-intensive workloads, can be performed more efficiently in 64-bit architectures than in 32-bit architectures.  However, SSL is almost always done in userland processes and not in the kernel.  You don't have to run a 64-bit kernel to run 64-bit userland apps (on some systems, anyway), much as 64-bit kernels support running 32-bit processes as well as running 64-bit userland processes.

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck