4.2 Architectures and processors

Yes. FreeBSD currently runs on the Intel x86 and DEC (now Compaq) Alpha architectures. As of FreeBSD 5.0, the AMD64 and Intel EM64T, IA-64, and Sparc64® architectures are also supported. Upcoming platforms are MIPS® and PowerPC®, join the FreeBSD PowerPC porting mailing list or the FreeBSD MIPS porting mailing list respectively for more information about ongoing work on these platforms. For general discussion on new architectures, join the FreeBSD non-Intel platforms porting mailing list.

If your machine has a different architecture and you need something right now, we suggest you look at NetBSD or OpenBSD.

Yes. SMP was enabled by default in the GENERIC kernel as of FreeBSD 5.2.

The intention was also to enable it by default for the FreeBSD 5.3 release, but problems running the SMP kernel on certain UP machines led to the decision to disable it until those problems can be addressed. This is a priority for FreeBSD 5.4.

In FreeBSD 4.X, SMP is not enabled in the default kernel, so you must recompile your kernel to enable SMP. Take a look at /sys/i386/conf/LINT to learn which options to put in your kernel config file.

Note: This will only affect 386/486SX/486SLC owners - other machines will have one built into the CPU.

In general this will not cause any problems, but there are circumstances where you will take a hit, either in performance or accuracy of the math emulation code (see the section on FP emulation). In particular, drawing arcs in X will be VERY slow. It is highly recommended that you buy a math co-processor; it is well worth it.