Hardware Question

[Nils Kassube]

Donald D Henson wrote:
> 1. Does i686 always mean that the referenced processor/machine/platform
> is 64-bit?

No, it is 32 bit. The CPUs which are referred to by "i686" are usually 32 
bit CPUs. See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I686>.

> 2. Does i386 always mean 32-bit?

Yes.

> 3. If the 'uname' command reports that the machine/processor is i686
> and that the platform is i386, does this mean that I am restricted to
> 32-bit software?

Yes and no. If your CPU understands 64 bit instructions, they should work, 
but what you get as 64 bit software probably needs the libraries compiled 
for 64 bit Linux. If you want to have 64 bit Ubuntu, you need the AMD64 
version.


Nils