Calling 32bit Code from 64bit Process

Question

I have an application that we're trying to migrate to 64bit from 32bit. It's .NET, compiled using the x64 flags. However, we have a large number of DLLs written in FORTRAN 90 compiled for 32bit. The functions in the FORTRAN DLLs are fairly simple: you put data in, you pull data out; no state of any sort. We also don't spend a lot of time there, a total of maybe 3%, but the calculation logic it performs is invaluable.

Can I somehow call the 32bit DLLs from 64bit code? MSDN suggests that I can't, period. I've done some simple hacking and verified this. Everything throws an invalid entry point exception. The only possible solution i've found so far is to create COM+ wrappers for all of the 32bit DLL functions and invoke COM from the 64bit process. This seems like quite a headache. We can also run the process in WoW emulation, but then the memory ceiling wouldn't be increased, capping at around 1.6gb.

Is there any other way to call the 32bit DLLs from a 64bit CLR process?

Answer 1

You need to write your executable processes as 32-bit processes (versus Any CPU or x64) so that they'll be loaded with WoW32 for Vista. This will load them in the 32-bit emulation mode and you won't have the entry point problem. You can leave you libraries in AnyCPU mode, but your executables have to be compiled as x86.

Answer 2

You'll need to have the 32-bit dll loaded into a separate 32-bit process, and have your 64 bit process communicate with it via interprocess communication. I don't think there is any way a 32-bit dll can be loaded into a 64 bit process otherwise.

There is a pretty good article here:

Accessing 32-bit DLLs from 64-bit code

Answer 3

John's answer is correct if you don't want to recompile your existing dlls; however that might be an option for you as well.

Our team is currently migrating our x86 FORTRAN code to x64 to increase the memory ceiling.