On Mon, Jun 4, 2018 at 7:20 AM, Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com> wrote:
= 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/thread/ZHV6I4IEO7GRYAZ4TUMO5VH2ZHLCNJZQ/
).
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.

Would you please provide more detail on what problem or problems we are trying to solve? Is this purely for efficiency reasons?

jeff