How to determine if my linux m/c is having 32 or 64 bit Kernel.

[Kostas Sfakiotakis]

Greetings,


The command "uname -a " should give u the kernel version number
and info abt whether its a 32-bit or 64-bit kernel. A 32-bit kernel
usually has the number i386 or i686 & 64-bit has the number x86_64.

The i386, i586, i686 are references to Pentium III and Pentium IV 
proccessors , which actually means that an i386 kernel which is the 
"oldest" and most compatible stuff could be running on a machine with 
a proccessor from Pentium 166 MMX up to the newest 3.0 GHz models plus 
even the AMD Proccessors . for example look what my machine prints 
Linux  2.4.31 #2 Mon Jun 20 22:00:34 EEST 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
                                                                              ^^^^^^^
  Notice the underlined stuff , My Machine has an Atlhon XP 2700+ CPU , 
so the best reference in my opinion would be : 'cat /proc/cpuinfo ' 

processor       : 0

The above line says that the informaiton that follow refer to the first CPU 
of the machine , in my case it's the first and last ( Single Proccessor ) 
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD

Now the above line says that i have an AMD proccessor .
cpu family      : 6
model           : 8

Well i can't decrypt the above 2 lines  but 

model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2700+

the above line says that Proccessor 0 is an 
AMD Athlon XP 2700+ ( forget the (tm) thing it's 
worthless , well it actually means trademark , so it is junk ) 

stepping        : 1

cpu MHz         : 2170.049

and the above line says that my CPU runs  2170.049 MHz


So untill know we have collected the following information 

: 

AMD Athlon XP 2700+  running at 2,17 GHz 

although it is not clearly stated it is a 32bit CPU . 

A Google search would proove that it is a 32 bit CPU .

Kind Regards, 
   Kostas