i386 or i586
 

Hi

i need to clarify to myself some doubts........
i have two pc...a laptop .....(the main one...)
pentium III celeron 1.1 ghz (fast....)
and a desktop assebled from trashware....(the test one).....
pentium II deschutes 350 mhz (slower....)
both dual boot win & linux....
when i install rpm package,i see always the i386 i586 etc suffix...
which is the processor family of my hw ?
i386 i486 etc etc ?
if i installed the wrong rpm package,what does it means... ?
it is compiled optimized for another processor type so i will not have the best performances.....?
this is also applicable to linux kernel ?
my the linux kernel recompile on the pentiumII machine improve performances...?
i recompiled in the past the kernel on my laptop and the process is very long..i wonder to myself how long it will last on the pentium II machine....
sumarizing....
what are the processor family of my hw
recompiling kernel and installing appropriate rpms will improve performances ?
thanks in advance

Maurizio

that's one hell of a messy post there...

you will most likely be using an i686 compatible CPU. these are backwards compatible with anything on i586, i486, i386... but as you get lower, you restrict the features enabled within the code to earlier instuction sets, which simply mean they might not perform as well as they otherwise might do, but at the benefit of compatability across the board.