Problem booting Snow leopard 64 bit kernel

[Quique]

Hi,I was using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow leopard 32 bit. I upgraded it to Mac OS X 10.6 64 bit but my Mac is not booting a 64 bit kernel also i want to know how do i boot a 64 bit kernel in Snow leopard successfully as it keeps on crashing.Also i need to know what is the difference between a 32 bit and 64 bit kernel. Please help in the following Issue.....

[Solomon]

You dont need to worry about 32 bit or 64 bit if you are an OS X user.
In a 32 bit OS like Windows there is a limitation on the total memory of the system which is 4 gb.In a 64 bit system the total memory limitation is more than 4 gb.It allows use of a very large number of RAM, 16 hexabytes to be precise but we dont use any applications which uses more than a gb of RAM.Also you dont need to worry about 64 bit or 32 bit OS in Mac as all codes are Universal Binary which include codes for both 32bit and 64bit unlike Windows in which we would have to download different applications for 32 or 64 bit.

[Calvin K]

By default Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard client boots into the 32 bit kernel. Servers on the right hardware defaults to K64.This is to ensure maximum compatibility to OS X client.Compatibility here means updating every single 32 bit application into a 64 bit application.Mac OS X 32 bit kernel can create both 32bit and 64 bit processes.Also a 32 bit Mac OS can use high amount of system RAM and allocate more RAM than 32 bit windows.So with Snow Leopard, you have compatibility of 32 bit kernel and performance of 64 bit processes.On the other hand Windows 32 bit is severely limited.A 32 bit Windows cannot process the application which are meant for 64 bit.So unless you have all the applications updated from 32 bit to 64 bit your Mac will boot 32 bit kernel only. Hope this information helps.

[Devasis]

Developing applications for a 64 bit takes time that's why all the applications of 32 bit cannot be updated to 64 bit.Hence to boot your Mac with 64 bit kernel automatically you need to update all the applications to 64 bit.So if you are sure that you are not going to use any 32 bit applications or drivers you can boot in to 64 bit kernel by holding the 6 and 4 key while you turn on your Mac.