From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 5 14:54:28 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D38B1065677 for ; Wed, 5 Aug 2009 14:54:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mel.flynn+fbsd.questions@mailing.thruhere.net) Received: from mailhub.rachie.is-a-geek.net (rachie.is-a-geek.net [66.230.99.27]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EFE978FC08 for ; Wed, 5 Aug 2009 14:54:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mel.flynn+fbsd.questions@mailing.thruhere.net) Received: from smoochies.rachie.is-a-geek.net (mailhub.rachie.is-a-geek.net [192.168.2.11]) by mailhub.rachie.is-a-geek.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D8907E818 for ; Wed, 5 Aug 2009 06:54:27 -0800 (AKDT) From: Mel Flynn To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 06:54:26 -0800 User-Agent: KMail/1.11.4 (FreeBSD/8.0-BETA2; KDE/4.2.4; i386; ; ) References: <200908051414.49468.david@vizion2000.net> <20090805132755.GA21963@falcon.midgard.homeip.net> In-Reply-To: <20090805132755.GA21963@falcon.midgard.homeip.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200908050654.26375.mel.flynn+fbsd.questions@mailing.thruhere.net> Subject: Re: kernel designations terminology confusion -- amd64 used for into quad core X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:54:28 -0000 On Wednesday 05 August 2009 05:27:55 Erik Trulsson wrote: > The amd64 architecture is called that because it was AMD who invented and > created it and was for a while the only one using it and since AMD named > the architecture AMD64 that was the name FreeBSD used too. Later Intel > also started using it (while using their own name(s) for it), but FreeBSD > has stuck with the name amd64. This isn't completely correct. There is actually an ia64 architecture, before Intel was ready to give up the "who dictates the PC 64bit architecture" battle. There's a handful of CPU's who use that instruction set, but later Intel switched to supporting AMD's instruction set and thus the PC 64 bit architecture now is amd64. It'll be fun to see people asking in a few years why Oracle processors are called "sparc64"... -- Mel