JRE 32bit vs 64bit

Question 1

64-bit vs. 32-bit really boils down to the size of object references, not the size of numbers.

In 32-bit mode, references are four bytes, allowing the JVM to uniquely address 2^32 bytes of memory. This is the reason 32-bit JVMs are limited to a maximum heap size of 4GB (in reality, the limit is smaller due to other JVM and OS overhead, and differs depending on the OS).

In 64-bit mode, references are (surprise) eight bytes, allowing the JVM to uniquely address 2^64 bytes of memory, which should be enough for anybody. JVM heap sizes (specified with -Xmx) in 64-bit mode can be huge.

But 64-bit mode comes with a cost: references are double the size, increasing memory consumption. This is why Oracle introduced "Compressed oops". With compressed oops enabled (which I believe is now the default), object references are shrunk to four bytes, with the caveat that the heap is limited to four billion objects (and 32GB Xmx). Compressed oops are not free: there is a small computational cost to achieve this big reduction in memory consumption.

As a personal preference, I always run the 64-bit JVM at home. The CPU is x64 capable, the OS is too, so I like the JVM to run in 64-bit mode as well.

Question 2

As you note, primitive numeric types in Java are well-defined.

However, the choice between 32-bit and 64-bit JVMs can matter if your Java application is using native-code libraries, which may be built for use in a 32-bit application, a 64-bit application, or both.

If you have native libraries that support only 32-bit applications, you either need to use a 32-bit JVM, or build 64-bit versions of the libraries.

Question 3

Depending on context, for local development I will always use a 64-bit JDK. Primarily because I would likely need the whole memory space for builds and the IDE.

That being said for integration to production, I would recommend 32-bit if it is possible. Why?

For some Java EE servers that are licensed for production use, it would depend on some factors like which machine how many cores etc. For WebSphere Liberty Profile specifically, you are also limited to 2GB.

64-bit JREs would take up slightly more memory and if you're trying to constrain it to something like 2GB or better yet 2x 1GB cluster you would have more flex space to work around in without paying a cent.

From https://plumbr.eu/blog/java/should-i-use-32-or-64-bit-jvm

Problem 1: 30-50% of more heap is required on 64-bit. Why so? Mainly because of the memory layout in 64-bit architecture. First of all – object headers are 12 bytes on 64-bit JVM. Secondly, object references can be either 4 bytes or 8 bytes, depending on JVM flags and the size of the heap. This definitely adds some overhead compared to the 8 bytes on headers on 32-bit and 4 bytes on references. You can also dig into one of our earlier posts for more information about calculating the memory consumption of an object.

Problem 2: Longer garbage collection pauses. Building up more heap means there is more work to be done by GC while cleaning it up from unused objects. What it means in real life is that you have to be extra cautious when building heaps larger than 12-16GB. Without fine tuning and measuring you can easily introduce full GC pauses spanning several minutes. In applications where latency is not crucial and you can optimize for throughput only this might be OK, but on most cases this might become a showstopper.

To limit your impact for your Java EE environment, offload parts of it to other microservices such as ElasticSearch for search, Hazelcast for caching, your database for data storage and keep your Java EE server to host your application core itself rather than running the services inside it.

Question 4

I think there are two main differences to consider. One has been mentioned here but not the other.

On the one hand, as other mentioned, the memory and data types. 32-bits and 64-bits JVMs use different native data type sizes and memory-address spaces.

64-bits JVMs can allocate (can use) more memory than the 32-bits ones.
64-bits use native datatypes with more capacity but occupy more space. Because that, the same Object may occupy more space too.
For JVMs which the Garbage Collector (GC) freezes the machine, the 64-bits versions may be slower because the GC must check bigger heaps/objects and it takes more time.
There is an IBM presentation explaining these differences.

And on the other hand, the supported native libraries. Java programs that use JNI to access native libraries require different versions depending on the type of JVM.

32-bits JVMs use 32-bits native libraries and 64-bits JVMs use 64bits libraries.
That means that, if your program uses libraries that rely on native code such as SWT, you will need different versions of them. Note in the SWT download page, there are different versions for Linux/Windows 32- and 64-bits. Note that there are different versions of Eclipse (each one with a different version of SWT) for 32- and 64-bits.
Some applications, such as Alloy, are packaged with 32-bits native libraries. They fail with 64-bit JVMs. You can solve these problems just downloading the corresponding 64-bits native libraries and configuring the JNI appropriately.

Question 5

Do I need to understand the difference between 32-bit JVM and 64-bit JVM?

If you aren’t building a performance critical application, you don’t have to understand the difference. The subtle difference between 32-bit JVM and 64-bit JVM wouldn’t make much difference to your application. You can skip reading further

Does 64-bit JVM perform better than 32-bit JVM?

Most of us think 64-bit is bigger than 32-bit, thus 64-bit JVM performance will be better than 32-bit JVM performance. Unfortunately, it’s not the case. 64-bit JVM can have a small performance degradation than 32-bit JVM. Below is the excerpt from Oracle JDK documentation regarding 64-bit JVM performance:

“Generally, the benefits of being able to address larger amounts of memory come with a small performance loss in 64-bit VMs versus running the same application on a 32-bit VM.

The performance difference comparing an application running on a 64-bit platform versus a 32-bit platform on SPARC is on the order of 10-20% degradation when you move to a 64-bit VM. On AMD64 and EM64T platforms this difference ranges from 0-15% depending on the amount of pointer accessing your application performs.”

Does 32 bit JVM or 64 bit JVM matter anymore.

What are the things to consider when migrating from 32-bit JVM to 64-bit JVM? a. GC Pause times

The primary reason to migrate from 32-bit JVM to 64-bit JVM is to attain large heap size (i.e. -Xmx). When you increase heap size, automatically your GC pause times will start to go high, because now there is more garbage in the memory to clear up. You need to do proper GC tuning before doing the migration, otherwise your application can experience several seconds to few minutes pause time.

b. Native Library

If your application is using Java Native Interface (JNI) to access native libraries, then you need to upgrade the native libraries as well. Because 32-bit JVM can use only 32-bit native library. Similarly, 64-bit JVM can use only 64-bit native library.