i386 = intel 80386.
i486 = intel 80486.
i586 = anything built on intel Pentium technology, including Pentium MMX.
i686 = anything built on intel Pentium Pro technology, including Pentium
II/III and Celeron.
The Pentium 4 is an entirely new chip, and for the moment has no specific
compilers. Since x86 chips are backwards-compatible, you can use i686
packages.
AMD Athlons and Durons have their own architecture (and even their own
compilation options in gcc), but are also compatible with i686. The AMD K6
series is Pentium-class, and so is 1586 compatible.
On Thu, 16 Aug 2001 16:05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Since someone just brought it up, could one of the smart people please
> explain the different kinds of architectures, what they mean, and why they
> matter? I know (from running the GNOME system info program in the
> monitoring menu) that I have an i686, what's that mean?
>
> Thanks,
> Isaac
>
> (i have a few more questions but both are completely different topics so
> I'll put them in other emails to try and help keep things threaded)
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan.
"There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
-- Jeremy S. Anderson
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