Be careful mixing times for 32-bit perls and 64-bit perls, especially on systems that emulate 64-bit integers, like gcc/libc on the x86 systems do. There's a lot of extra overhead there and, while the ultimate numbers are slower, you're not comparing apples to apples. Even native 64-bit systems like the alphas may perform more slowly, since you're slinging more data across the bus and using more cache memory for each variable.