Supported Processors and System Boards

   This section provides some architecture-specific information about
   the specific processors and systems that are supported by each
   architecture.

     --------------------------------------------------------------

  2.1 amd64

   Since mid-2003 FreeBSD/amd64 has supported the AMD64 ("Hammer")
   and Intel(R) EM64T architecture, and is now one of the Tier-1
   platforms (fully supported architecture), which are expected to be
   Production Quality with respects to all aspects of the FreeBSD
   operating system, including installation and development
   environments.

   Note that there are two names for this architecture, AMD64 (AMD)
   and Intel EM64T (Extended Memory 64-bit Technology). 64-bit mode
   of the two architectures are almost compatible with each other,
   and FreeBSD/amd64 should support them both.

   As of this writing, the following processors are supported:

     * AMD Athlon(TM)64 ("Clawhammer").

     * AMD Opteron(TM) ("Sledgehammer").

     * All multi-core Intel Xeon(TM) processors except Sossaman have
       EM64T support.

     * The single-core Intel Xeon processors "Nocona", "Irwindale",
       "Potomac", and "Cranford" have EM64T support.

     * All Intel Core 2 (not Core Duo) and later processors

     * All Intel Pentium(R) D processors

     * Intel Pentium 4s and Celeron Ds using the "Cedar Mill" core
       have EM64T support.

     * Some Intel Pentium 4s and Celeron Ds using the "Prescott" core
       have EM64T support. See the Intel Processor Spec Finder for
       the definitive answer about EM64T support in Intel processors.

   Intel EM64T is an extended version of IA-32 (x86) and different
   from Intel IA-64 (Itanium) architecture, which FreeBSD/ia64
   supports. Some Intel's old documentation refers to Intel EM64T as
   "64-bit extension technology" or "IA-32e".

   The largest tested memory configuration to date is 32GB. SMP
   support has been recently completed and is reasonably robust.

   In many respects, FreeBSD/amd64 is similar to FreeBSD/i386, in
   terms of drivers supported. There may be some issues with 64-bit
   cleanliness in some (particularly older) drivers. Generally,
   drivers that already function correctly on other 64-bit platforms
   should work.

   FreeBSD/amd64 is a very young platform on FreeBSD. While the core
   FreeBSD kernel and base system components are generally fairly
   robust, there are likely to still be rough edges, particularly
   with third party packages.

FreeBSD 7.2 releases amd64 ISO-IMAGES 7.2-BETA1-amd64-disc2.iso

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