comparing the x86s

[internlinx]

Hi everyone,

I'm an intern that's preparing a chart for my manager and
I need to know what is the different features in the
32 bit architectures of the x86s (i.e i386 vs i686) and also the
64 bit architecture x86_64.

What's the difference?
Is there any difference between them besides the # of transistors?
Is there a link that I can go to that will answer my question directly
(more specific than Intel.com)?

Thanks in advance
-confused newbie

[techieMoe]

This might give you a start:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/per...a64-em64t.html

As for the actual instruction sets and transistor differences, I'm at a loss.

[internlinx]

Thanks.
I read that forum before and
it helped me for the first part of my assignment, but now I need to know
how the x86s differ in features.
Before I didn't know what x86 means, now I do thanks to that forum which is why I signed up, lol.
My question now is
Why is the i686 better than the i386 or the i586? and
Is the x86_64 any better than the i686?

[oz]

Check out the Intel and AMD websites. They probably have some online documentation that might help:

Intel® Processors

AMD Product Information