kernel designations terminology confusion -- amd64 used for into quad core

[Jonathan McKeown]

On Wednesday 05 August 2009 15:14:49 David Southwell wrote:
> Hi every one
>
> My understanding is that one uses the amd64 for building a kernel for
> systems with Intel Quad Core processors.
>
> It is helpful when naming conventions follow a logical strand. I mean why
> does freebsd use a single manufacturer's name to represent a genre?

Because it's technically correct, as I understand it.

Unless I've got this wrong (in which case I'm sure someone will shout), there 
were initially two 64-bit instruction sets, amd64 from AMD and ia64 from 
Intel. ia64 saw so little uptake that Intel started using the AMD instruction 
set, but amd64 is still the appropriate description for most 64-bit 
processors these daya regardless of manufacturer.

Jonathan