| From: Knute Johnson <knute@xxxxxxxxxxx> | | I've got a Pentium 3 600mhz computer. Is the P3 chip an i686? i686 is the mythical name of the Pentium Pro and its family members (P2, P3). Code compiled for i686 works on any successor chips. The original Pentium was going to be called the 586 (next in the sequence 8086, 186, 286, 386, 486) but Intel discovered it could not trademark a number (in some jurisdiction?). So many folks call the next generation the 686. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I686 The 32-bit instruction set was introduced with the 386. New instructions have been added in several steps. The Linux distros have more or less settled on the 686 instruction set as being sufficiently powerful and yet sufficiently inclusive. If you are willing to recompile everything (Gentoo?), I would guess that even i386 could still be supported.
