Re: [tlug] pricing on machine for sale

[Edward Middleton <edwardmiddleton@example.com>]

On Wed, 2004-05-05 at 13:49, Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon wrote:
> Wasn't Linux originally developed on the 486?  What does the term
> "i386" mean for the downloads?  That the Intel 386 is the very lowest
> you can go with it?
i386 refers to the command set used in the machine code created by the
compiler.  A program compiled for i386 should only use commands used
supported by the Intel 386 processors(which effectively means an
descendant of the 386).  I gather the 386 was the first of that line of
processors to support multitasking.  I think Linus felt the 286 command
set was too severely limited to be worth the effort of supporting.

Edward Middleton