It works very well and efficiently.
I don’t know why Mikrotik not given officially as a start.
I know about the x86_64 bit stabel since May 2016 years
There are several important settings to work, but mikrotik nothing reports about them.
It is entirely dependent on the memory controller. In the past that may be so when extended memory support wasnt available. From the last decade every PC has extended memory support in the controller itself allowing for more than 4GB of ram to be addressed in 32 bit mode especially if the CPU is a 64 bit architecture as there wont be any performance penalty in that case.
Besides even if it isnt true and you get performance penalty, not having enough ram will cause even more performance issues.
5-10% it’s not a problem at all. I doubt this will be the case but as we have 1-20% load on x86 it will not be an issue. On the other hand, 2GB of RAM which ROS see, is a big PROBLEM.
As SystemErrorMessage said, nowadays memory controllers are very fast, so we will not lose any of performance.
5-10% penalty from memory is if you use registered/buffered ram for those using large amount of ram. So unless you plan to have more than 80GB of ram this doesnt matter. The memory controller will work at the same speed relatively regardless of the amount of ram for the memory controller on the CPU. Since it is on the CPU it is so fast with very fast bus to the CPU that the amount of memory, pointer sizes and such dont matter.
Look at the x86 architecture now, the memory controller will be just as fast regardless of memory size as for a 64 bit CPU, the pointer size will also be 64 bits. This isnt trying to use extended memory on a 32 bit system where extra processing is added to the controller.
you say 5-10% less memory performance. Lets take a typical dual channel memory system, you have 2x1GB vs 2x4GB, both have the same frequency, timings, etc. Will addressing all the 8GB really make it slower? I mean if the ram bandwidth is 32GB/s does it matter how much memory because im pretty sure even with extra load that memory controller is still gonna work at 32GB/s limited by the ram itself and not the controller.
As i said not having enough RAM is a bigger performance killer than an insignificant difference in ram speed from having more ram if such even exists.
Eventually deprecate the x86 installation. Then go to something like The Yocto Project and build a very lean Linux VM hypervisor but only for a singular VM, the CHR VM. Make it a completely automated installation and have it setup as a baseline Linux/KVM with one CHR host.
That way there’s always a stable, sustainable, and really fast hypervisor/CHR host. As well as a completely separated and uninterrupted RouterOS installation that can be tuned without having to constantly add tons and tons of drivers. Then one can let the Linux kernel to add drivers and said drivers for said devices can be imported to the CHR through the VM hypervisor as generic interfaces.
It almost seems like a triple win. Really lean VM host + non-changing RouterOS/CHR environment + abstraction of all device drivers as generic interfaces that can be further optimized.
The ONLY thing that would need to happen is that there needs to be better 10Gb/sec optimizations between CHR and the hardware so that one can actually achieve those data rates.
now just look at ‘Extra packages’ links in Download page. this .zip contains everything including ‘system’ package (which contains the kernel, I believe )
in some early v6 versions there was a checkbox under ‘System → Resources → Hardware’ for enabling 64-bit mode. looks like they removed it and created the CHR as a separate system
CHR is not ASIC as Cisco or Juniper.. So making x64 will do Your product flexible to hw bugs, as they are common suffering on CHR-s and every other type of RB-s
Then You will have a lot of betatesters whome you are not responsible of - Buy now your are testing with loosing them.
I am a big mikortik user and run RouterOS almost network wide.
I have no interest in my core routers being virtual machines and have build x86 machines (so I can get a good mix of 10GBE ports and 1GBE ports) to serve as our routers.
It surely cannot be hard to port the CHR to an ISO that we can install on bare metal.
