11-09-2012
The terms are used interchangeably on a lot of Linux distros. 386 was the first popular CPU architecture in the line their current processors descend from. Since it's an Intel processor they're referring to they prefix it with a lower case "i". It's since become a shorthand way of referring to "386-family processors" or at this point "Intel-style processors."
So "i386" means technically the Intel processor that came out in the mid-80's but it's more general than that in the FOSS world. After 80386 I believe Intel released a 80486 and a 80586. So "i686" (being a model number they hadn't reached by the time they stopped making the 80x86 processors) is a shorthand way of saying "386-style processor but newer than that specific line" Which usually means Pentium since that's what came later.
So technically i686 is a subset of i386, but at this point you're not going to run into a "i386" processor that is from the 80's so the terms are used interchangeably.
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LEARN ABOUT REDHAT
microcode_ctl
MICROCODE_CTL(8) System Manager's Manual MICROCODE_CTL(8)
NAME
microcode_ctl - microcode utility for Intel IA32 processors
SYNOPSIS
microcode_ctl [-h] [-i] [-u [-q]] [-Q] [-f microcode]
DESCRIPTION
The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>. The utility has two
uses:
a) it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, Celeron, PIII, Xeon,
Pentium 4 etc)
b) it signals the kernel driver to release the buffers containing the copy of microcode data actually applied to given CPU, linear array of
2048 bytes per CPU, see struct microcode in include/asm/processor.h for information on the layout of chunks buffers may hold
The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system boot i.e. it doesn't reflash your cpu permanently, reboot and it
reverts back to the old microcode.
-h display usage and exit
-i release any buffers held in microcode driver
-u upload microcode (from default filename)
-f upload microcode from named Intel formatted file
-q run silently when successful
-Q run silently even on failure
EXAMPLE
microcode_ctl -iu
Upload and free kernel buffers
FILES
/etc/microcode.dat
The default microcode location
AUTHOR
Microcode utility written by Simon Trimmer
Linux Kernel driver written by Tigran Aivazian.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to either Simon Trimmer <simon@veritas.com> or Tigran Aivazian <tigran@veritas.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000 VERITAS Software
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
LAR PURPOSE.
SPECIAL THANKS
Thanks to the Intel Corporation, for supplying microcode update data and publishing the specifications that enabled us to write microcode
driver for Linux.
SEE ALSO
The brave are recommended to view the driver source code located in the Linux Kernel source tree in arch/i386/kernel/microcode.c
Visit http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/ for more information and microcode updates.
microcode_ctl 17 January 2001 MICROCODE_CTL(8)