i686 ---> i586, i386 ---> i586, x86_64 stays the same

[Will Woods]

On Sun, 2009-04-05 at 23:01 +0100, psmith wrote:

> i completely understand the reasoning to move i365 up to i586, but why 
> on earth restrict i686 capable processors to the i586 instruction sets?

Again: the only difference between i586 and i686 is the CMOV family of
instructions, which are generally *slower* than the i586 version.

You can read Linus' detailed explanation here:
http://ondioline.org/mail/cmov-a-bad-idea-on-out-of-order-cpus

Building for i686 gives *no* real performance benefit[1], but breaks
support for i586 machines - Via C7-based netbooks, AMD Geode (e.g. the
OLPC XO-1), and so on.

-w

[1] except on in-order CPUs like Atom and the original Pentium