What's the difference between i586 and i386?

[mr_byte31]

hi every body i was searchin for mandrake but i found dist for i586 i want to ask whats the different between it an i386

 

[Jack// ani]

i586 or i386

i586 is for Pentium or any similar compatible processor. i386 is for 386 processor. Pentium supports 386...but the other way round is not possible.

Hope this helps

 

[mobile-it]

Re: i586 or i386

You are talking about Pentiums; which to use for AMD?

 

[Jack// ani]

i586 or i386

I said Pentium and any similar compatible processor.......AMD comes under this category!!

 

[mobile-it]

Re: i586 or i386

Sorry, I read to quickly

 

[Davood Amerion]

i586 or i386

i think 586 is simillar to 486.
pentuim have diffrent architecture.
am i right?

 

[The Svin]

i586 or i386

There is difference between i386 and i486 and i486 and P5. And it's not only regarding "backword" support. i486 has some features that are not supported by P5+. Also about backword compartability of IA32 - it's partial any way. For example (16)20bit real address mode rounding (when segment*16 + offset >= 2^20 in modulo 2^20 addition for 20 bit address bus) is OK for i386-,
yet causes PF in i386+, also there are difference in NMI handling etc. So for carifull system programmer I'd say - there is only partion backward support.