title: Ways to access a 32bit DLL from a 64bit exe
body: <p>I have a project that must be compiled and run in 64 bit mode. Unfortunately, I am required to call upon a DLL that is only available in 32 bit mode, so there's no way I can house everything in a 1 Visual Studio project. I am working to find the best way to wrap the 32 bit DLL in its own exe/service and issue remote (although on the same machine) calls to that exe/service from my 64 bit app. My OS is Win7 Pro 64 bit.</p>
  
  <p>The required calls to this 32 bit process are several dozen per second, but low data volume. This is a realtime image analysis application so response time is critical despite low volume. Lots of sending/receiving single primitives.</p>
  
  <p>Ideally, I would host a WCF service to house this DLL, but in a 64 bit OS one cannot force the service to run as x86! <a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/349510/vs2008-incorrectly-launches-x64-version-of-wcfsvchost-for-x86-debugging#tabs" rel="noreferrer">Source</a>. That is really unfortunate since I timed function calls to the WCF service to be only 4ms on my machine.</p>
  
  <p>I have experimented with named pipes is .net. I found them to be 40-50 times slower than WCF (unusable for me).</p>
  
  <p>Any other options or suggestions for the best way to approach my puzzle?</p>