2 $FreeBSD: src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/hardware/i386/proc-i386.sgml,v 1.1.2.4 2002/09/19 23:00:36 bmah Exp $
3 $DragonFly: src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/hardware/i386/Attic/proc-i386.sgml,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:27:19 dillon Exp $
6 <title>Supported Processors and Motherboards</title>
8 <para>&os;/i386 runs on a wide variety of
9 <quote>IBM PC compatible</quote> machines. Due to the wide range of
10 hardware available for this architecture, it is impossible to
11 exhaustively list all combinations of equipment supported by &os;.
12 Nevertheless, some general guidelines are presented here.</para>
14 <para>Almost all i386-compatible processors are supported. All
15 Intel processors beginning with the 80386 are supported, including
16 the 80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III,
17 Pentium 4, and variants thereof, such as the Xeon and Celeron
18 processors. (While technically supported, the use of the 80386SX is
19 specifically not recommended.) All i386-compatible AMD processors
20 are also supported, including the Am486, Am5x86, K5, K6 (and variants),
21 Athlon (including Athlon-MP, Athlon-XP, Athlon-4, and Athlon Thunderbird), and Duron processors.
22 The AMD Élan SC520 embedded processor is supported.
23 The Transmeta Crusoe is recognized
24 and supported, as are i386-compatible processors from Cyrix and
27 <para>There is a wide variety of motherboards available for this
28 architecture. Motherboards using the ISA, VLB, EISA, AGP, and PCI
29 expansion busses are well-supported. There is some limited support
30 for the MCA (<quote>MicroChannel</quote>) expansion bus used in the
31 IBM PS/2 line of PCs.</para>
33 <para>Symmetric multi-processor (SMP) systems are generally
34 supported by &os;, although in some cases, BIOS or motherboard bugs
35 may generate some problems. Perusal of the archives of the &a.smp;
36 may yield some clues.</para>
38 <para>&os; will generally run on i386-based laptops, albeit with
39 varying levels of support for certain hardware features such as
40 sound, graphics, power management, and PCCARD expansion slots.
41 These features tend to vary in idiosyncratic ways between machines,
42 and frequently require special-case support in &os; to work around
43 hardware bugs or other oddities. When in doubt, a search of the
44 archives of the &a.mobile; may be useful.</para>