Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 09:04:28 -0500 From: "Butler, Paul" <Paul.Butler@tdbanknorth.com> To: "'freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org> Subject: i386 support Message-ID: <7E62107FEEDDCC42B8A01A9A12A557142A5872@me6awmail04.bkng.net>
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Christer Hermansson wrote: > Hi. > > FreeBSD 6.0R don't support 386 processors according to the release > notes, maybe it's time to change the name of the i386 platform to the > x86 platform. > > Do you realize how many things depend on the platform name being i386? Just thinking of ports alone, I cound probably name a "few." Not very important, but a huge hastle to switch over. -Frank I believe the issue here is one of the accepted nomenclature currently in use in the industry, although it is not completely accurate. This is because "i-386" is often used to refer to all the processing chips using successors to the 386 instruction set, even though very few installations actually employ a true 386 chip. FreeBSD needs to keep its terminology consistent with other operating systems ported to the same "Intel-based" technology, and in this context retaining the "i-386" designation makes sense because all of us whose responsibility includes 32-bit Pentium family hardware can immediately identify which version of FreeBSD (or the kernel) is the one for use on these machines. Paul Butler
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