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Distribution: Mandriva One 2008.1, Vector 5.8 SOHO, Knoppix 5.1.1
Posts: 50
Rep:
Processor architecture confusion
This may sound silly to some of you, but what does i[3...6]86 mean?
Is an i686 processor a dual-core CPU? is x86_64 a quad core CPU?
What category would my AMD Athlon XP 2500+ fall under?
Distribution: Distribution: RHEL 5 with Pieces of this and that.
Kernel 2.6.23.1, KDE 3.5.8 and KDE 4.0 beta, Plu
Posts: 5,700
Rep:
i386 to i686 is the reference to pentium chips. i386 is a 386 chip.
Which these are 32bit processors.
x86_64 is a 64bit processor. It does not mean other than a single cpu
AMD Athlon XP would be a 32bit single processor chip.
AMD Athlon64 would be a 64 bit processor
AMD turion 64 X2 Athlon would be a dual core 64 bit processor.
Search google for your chip or on Athlon site to learn the specs of it.
Is an i686 processor a dual-core CPU? is x86_64 a quad core CPU?
Not quite. Processors above Petntium II are commonly referred to as i686. Modern dual-core CPUs are different in that they have two cores, each of which is either x86 or x86_64. The latter is what is called the 64-bit architecture.
Quote:
What category would my AMD Athlon XP 2500+ fall under?
Pentium is latin for 'fifth' therefore it means i586 (fifth generation Intel) this was done by Intel because they failed to sue AMD as numbers (such as 386, 486 etc.) cannot be trademarked. Thus, Pentium II is Pentium + 1 = i686. Really everything after and including the Pentium Pro is considered i686 (at least by the gcc compiler). As for x86_64, this is a 64 bit architecture first developed by AMD (Athlon 64), it is designed to be x86 compatible.
Last edited by H_TeXMeX_H; 02-16-2008 at 06:34 AM.
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