Re: i386 support

Thomas Pornin (bip@orion.ens.fr)
Mon, 6 Apr 1998 01:31:50 +0200


In article <6r9YDpp$2BB@trib0026.line.org>,
Johnny Tevessen <j.tevessen@line.org> wrote:
>Is it planned to drop i386 in future and only support ix86
>with (x>=4)?

As far as I know, i386 is not about to be dropped. And it is unlikely it
will ever be dropped, because there are many 386's around that perform
a good duty of routing. This message, for instance, has gone twice (for
typing and for sending) through a 386dx40 with four cheap ne2000 clones,
and this little thing handles 700 Kbytes per second.

>Do Linux programs compiled with gcc with -m486 (which expands
>to -mcpu=i486) run on i386 machines? And -march=i486?

Those compiled with -m486 MAY work on a 386, but I would not bet my life
on it. gcc uses 486-specific instructions with -m486. Linux distributions
use kernels built for 386.

--Thomas Pornin

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