# hardware name/platform/CPU type?



## Guest (Aug 18, 2003)

In command "uname -a", what is the difference between :-
Hardware name(-m)/Processor type(-p)/Hardware platform(-i)
my system has RH 9.0 CPU Intel 1.6GHz.
$uname -a
command returns
-m : i686 hardware name
-p : i686 Processor type
-i : i386 hardware platform

i also need mplayer for RH9.0 in the site freshrpm it shows i386 with in the rpm package name what it denotes. is that one is compatible with my system? if its not then what should i do for it?


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## gotissues68 (Sep 7, 2002)

i686 means most recent athlon xp, and p4 systems. 

i386 denotes an intel 386 processor
i486 intel 486
i586 pentium pro and so forth

You can run a i386 package on an i686 machine, the only thing is that its not fully optimized to run on the processor you have, but most of the time you won't ever notice the difference.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2003)

thanks gotissues68. but can u tell me what's the difference between Hardware name & Pocessor Type. what's Hardware name name refers?


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## gotissues68 (Sep 7, 2002)

I checked the manpage for uname and -i doesn't seem to be an option, it might be redhat specific.

-m = machine type which is the actual hardware platform such as x86, sparc, vendor and the like.. Here is the output from uname -m on my box which is an AMD duron

-([email protected]:<pts/1>)-(06:00:51)-
-(../local/icecast)$-> uname -m
i686

And here is the output from the same command running on a Sun Microsystems server that we have at work.

-([email protected]:<pts/59>)-(06:00)-
-(~/)$-> uname -m
sun4u

processor type--- uname -p 

-([email protected]:<pts/59>)-(06:04)-
-(~/)$-> uname -p
sparc

-([email protected]:<pts/1>)-(06:00:54)-
-(../local/icecast)$-> uname -p
unknown


I hope that makes sense..


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2003)

thanks gotissues68 i got it. bye.


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