This page contains information about the FreeBSD/i386 platform. - This architecture supports the largest variety of CPUs since - most home users purchase these machines. If you have a machine - from any large PC company (such as Dell™, HP, or eMachines®) - chances are that you have either an AMD™ or Intel® CPU and thus - fall into this category.
+ FreeBSD/i386 should support any CPU compatible with the Intel™ + 80486 or better in 32-bit mode, although almost every recent AMD™ + and Intel™ CPU will also be capable of running in 64-bit mode + using the FreeBSD/amd64 + port. -FreeBSD/i386 supports up to 4GiB of RAM by default. Machines + with more RAM will either need to run + FreeBSD/amd64 or run with + + Physical Address Extension (PAE) enabled in order to make use of + any memory above the 4GiB boundary.
- +FreeBSD/i386 runs in 32-bit multiuser mode, in both + Uniprocessor and Multiprocessor mode.
- -FreeBSD 6.0 and newer no longer supports the original - Intel 80386 CPU; these computers are over seven years - old and are only supported by FreeBSD 5.X and earlier. Note that the - GENERIC kernel only supports 80386 CPUs in FreeBSD 4.X and earlier. -
The i386 platform is a Tier + 1 FreeBSD platform.