= Proposed System Wide Change: i686 Is For x86-64 = https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/i686_Is_For_x86-64

Owner(s): * Florian Weimer <fweimer at redhat dot com>

Fedora builds its i686 packages for use on x86-64 systems as multi-lib RPMs.

== Detailed description == Currently, the i686 RPM packages are built in such a way that they are compatible with very old i686 systems, such as the Pentium III. The only addition over the i686/Pentium Pro baseline is a requirement to support long NOPs, for Intel CET. However, the majority of installations of i686 packages is for use on x86_64 systems, as multi-lib RPMs. Furthermore, there are reports that the i686 kernel does not run stable on old hardware which is not x86-64-capable ( https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/x86@lists.fedoraproject.org/th... ). This proposal suggests to accept this reality and build the i686 packages in such a way that they require the ISA level of (early) x86-64 CPUs.

== Scope == * Proposal owners: Adjust the redhat-rpm-config, gcc, and glibc packages to switch to the new compiler flags. Except for mstackrealign, there is substantial experience with this configuration downstream.

* Other developers: Other developers can enable SSE2 optimization in their packages if they want, where this has been a compile-time option only.

* Release engineering: https://pagure.io/releng/issues/7543 #7543

** List of deliverables: TBD

* Policies and guidelines: i686 is no longer a primary architecture. The Packaging Guidelines do not currently require support for non-SSE2 x86 systems, so no change is required there.

* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)