The x32 ABI enables the running of processes in 64-bit mode while using 32-bit pointers, hopefully getting the best of both the 32-bit and 64-bit worlds. Users of most distributions will have to wait some time for an x32 version, but Gentoo, as is often the case, is ahead of the curve: there is an x32 release candidate available now. “I call this a release candidate as it is using glibc-2.15 with backported patches. the ABI however should be the same as glibc-2.16, so hopefully the upgrade will go smooth. but i don’t want to make an official release on the chance that things aren’t smooth, so this is a release candidate.“
Read more at LWN
