Why do .NET developers offer 32-bit/64-bit versions of .NET assemblies?

Posted by Tyler on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Tyler
Published on 2009-01-17T23:36:59Z Indexed on 2010/06/14 18:02 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 206

Filed under:

64bit

|

release

|

jit

Evey now and then I see both x86 and x64 versions of a .NET assembly. Consider the following web part for SharePoint. Why wouldn't the developer just offer a single version and have let the JIT compiler sort out the rest? When I see these kinds offering is it just that the developer decided to create a native image using a tool like ngen in order to avoid a JIT?

Someone please help me out here, I feel like I'm missing something of note.

Updated

From what I got below, both x86 and x64 builds are offered because one or more of the following reasons:

The developer wanted to avoid JITing and created a native image of his code, targeting a given architecture using a tool like ngen.exe.
The assembly contains platform specific COM calls and so it makes no point to build it as AnyCPU. In these cases builds that target different platforms may contain different code.
The assembly may contain Win32 calls using pinvoke which won't get remapped by a JIT and so the build should target the platform it is bound to.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about 64bit

How do I install Geomatica?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I wanted to try the latest version(trial) of Geomatica, Geomatica 2012 on Ubuntu 11.10 beta. When I tried to run the bin file I got a whole list of dependencies. It also seems that it is a RPM package. Instead of going through each entry manually, is there any easy way to search and install a list… >>> More
Java 64bit install throwing non compatible 64bit error in 64bit Windows 7

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
JRE and JDK 64bit install executable are throwing a non compatible win32 error: jre_7u1_windows-x64bit.exe is not a valid Win32 application. I thought this could be a system environment variable problem, but from what I can tell it is not, the variable PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE is set as: AMD64 and… >>> More
ColdFusion 9 64bit / MAMP Pro 1.9 64Bit on OSX

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I followed this thread and it's associated links. But there is nothing i can do to get CF9 to work. MAMP Pro now has the 64bit version of apache 2.2. Whenever i start apache i get an error saying it couldn't start and to check the logs. i check the logs and this is what i see. 6/1/10 12:39:12 PM… >>> More
Using Toad with 64bit Oracle Client and Windows 7 64bit Operating System

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
After downloading the latest version of Toad for Windows 7 64bit, I am struggling to get it to connect to the database using the existing full Oracle Client that is already on the desktop. The Oracle Client that is there is a 64bit version and is version 12c. When running Toad it says that there is… >>> More
how to find if the machine is 32bit or 64bit

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there anyway from a C prog to find whether the OS is currently running in 32bit or 64bit mode. I am using a simple program as below int main(void){ switch(sizeof(void*)){ case 4: printf("32\n"); break; case 8: printf("64\n"); break; } } Is this a correct… >>> More

Related posts about release

Where is the sample applications in the lastest Spring release(Spring Framework 3.0.2)?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi guys, On the Spring download page, It says that For all Spring Framework releases, the basic release contains only the binaries while the -with-dependencies release contains everything the basic release contains plus all third-party dependencies, buildable source trees, and sample… >>> More
NSOperationQueue bug with dependencies

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am using NSOperation and NSOperationQueue for performing a sequence of operations, all dependent on each other (2 on 1, 3 on 2, etc...). I set the dependency after I create the operations. I am encountering problems when the queue completes: the program crashes in the _release part of the code… >>> More
Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 Certified with EBS on Microsoft Windows Server

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
As a follow up to to a previous announcement, Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.4) is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and Release 12 on the following Microsoft Windows Server operating systems:… >>> More
Oracle Database 11gR2 11.2.0.3 Certified with E-Business Suite on HP-UX PA-RISC

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
As a follow up to our original announcement, Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3) is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and Release 12 on the following HP-UX platforms: Release 11i (11… >>> More
Apt-Get Update: failure to fetch; can't connect to any sources

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I realize there are dozens of "apt-get update: failure to fetch" questions (I read through all I could find), but my present circumstance is unique to 12.04 and it affects all sources; not just launchpad. Additionally, I've tried several different servers in Europe and the U.S. as well as the "main… >>> More