.386 .486 .586 .686

[ossama]

what should i choose from (.386 .486 .586 .686 ...) in my source codes in masm :toothy

[hutch--]

Depends what you want to write. Look around for the processor minimum specs in masm for each processor and note that you need to specify .MMX or XMM as well if you need to use the later instructions.

[ossama]

.686 is it the P4 ?
please give me the meaning of each number (.686 .586 .486 .386 ...)
i am confused.

[donkey]

Hi ossama,

Limiting the instruction set to a specific processor can be useful in extremely rare circumstances, for example if you need to know if it runs on a 486 as well as a P4. But I would think it is better to write your program for the highest class processor, the likelihood that you will use an instruction that is not available on the Pentium and above is rare outside of SSE and if your using that then it would never have ran on lower processors anyway. A Windows program will probably not be targeted to a 486 and so outside of CMOV there are few non SSE instructions you have to worry about. So my advice is to ignore all of that stuff and use .686P.

For the meanings...

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/afzk3475(VS.71).aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8t163bt0(VS.71).aspx

[ossama]

is .686 the last thing,
does not there some thing like .786 ?

[donkey]

.686 is the last one, there have been no radically new architectures since the Pentium Pro (P6) in 32 bits. All other instruction set enhancements are microcode (MMX/SSE/SSE2/SSE3). The P7 architecture is simply a P6 with netburst.

[ossama]

thank you, i will use .686,
i was using in my programs .586,and now i  will use.686

[WillofIrony]

I want to give ossama a huge vote of thanks for his many questions. I am just beginning in MASM32. In the past couple of months, ossama has asked at least 4 questions for which I have been frantically searching for solutions. Thanks ossama :clap:

[hutch--]

Will,

Don't be afraid to ask questions in here, thats what the forum is for.  :bg