Re: Intel Atom Processor

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:07:50 +0000, Lisi wrote:

> On Wednesday 17 February 2010 11:59:05 Camaleón wrote:

>> Debian uses "i386" for naming the whole 32 bits architecture:
>>
>> http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch02s01.html.en#id3060035
>>
>> Other distros use "x86" for i386/i486/i586/i686 packages and "x86_64"
>> for 64 bits. Don't ask me why, I didn't decide those names :-)
> 
> I understand what you are saying, and would not argue with it. - but why
> then does my system announce itself as i686??

As Jochen already explained, what you are seeing when issuing "uname -a" 
is the version of the compiled kernel you have installed on your system.

So here in Debian, users wanting to use a "32-bits system" (despite the 
capabilities of their processor) have several choices:

***
linux-image-2.6-486 
→ a 32-bits kernel optimized for i486 processors (quite old micros dated 
from 1989-1994)

linux-image-2.6-686 
→ a 32-bits kernel optimized for i686 processors (suitable for AMD, 
Pentium Pro+)

linux-image-2.6-686-bigmem
→ a 32-bits kernel optimized for i686 processors adding support for +4 
GiB RAM( PAE)

linux-image-2.6-openvz-686
→ a 32-bits kernel optimized for i686 processors adding support for 
openvz virtualization

linux-image-2.6-vserver-686
→ a 32-bits kernel optimized for i686 processors adding support for 
vserver virtualization

linux-image-2.6-vserver-686-bigmem
→ a 32-bits kernel optimized for i686 processors adding support for 
vserver virtualization plus +4 GiB RAM (PAE)
***

:-)

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón