Yes but the core of the kernel builds on the same code as used for most other intel chips. look at /usr/src/linux/arch/* for i386. Also all include files used are in /usr/src/linux/include/asm-i386. The main difference by using that selection is that the compiler builds in some optimisations that apply the that arch, via the Makefiles. The same source code is traversed, and one of the difficulties of having such general code is that it can bloat the builds a bit, simply through build overhead. Its easy to see that many efforts have been made to limit this effect through ifdef structures and such.
Well I think it is a moot point now anyway as most people will be focussing on AMD64 now anyway if they are developers... -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand