i486 when you ask "machine" in terminal

[DakotaGuy]

When I had an iMac G3 and I typed in machine I got PPC 750. On my Powerbook G4 I got PPC 7450, that made sense, althought it really had a PPC 7447 in it. When I had an iMac G5 and typed in machine, I got PPC 970, again that made complete sense.

Now on my Intel iMac I get, i486. So I did a google search of i486...and this was the first hit...

http://www.ba23.org/page0203.html

HOLY COW! That does not look like my iMac!

 

[carlos700]

I believe it's using the term "i486" to identify the processor architecture (which really is x86) ... I could be wrong. The term "386" has been used to identify PCs back in the PentiumII/Pentium/DX2 days.

 

[remowilliams]

Heh, that's kind of funny. Odd, most of the compiler directives are i386 I believe.

In any case the architecture class as a whole is x86 really.