what is x86?
what is x86?
It's a group of instruction sets for processor architectures. Even though it's often referred to as 32-bit, that doesn't mean it's limited to that size.
I don't actually know the answer myself, but here's quote from Yahoo x86 is actually just notation for a CPU instruction set which has been used in most modern day processors. x86 actually has three different subsets: x86-16 (16-bit), x86-32 (32-bit) and x86-64 (64-bit). The 32-bit version of x86 became so common that eventually the term "x86" by itself was known to be the 32-bit iteration. The newer 64-bit version can be referred to as it is above, but far more often is simply called "x64", which can understandably be confusing to someone who doesn't have a lot of knowledge concerning computer hardware, as it sounds like a step backwards! Because of this, the 32-bit version of Vista is "x86", and the 64-bit version is "x64"
This instruction set powers most contemporary desktops, laptops, and even certain tablets. For a detailed explanation, Wikipedia offers an extensive article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_64. It remains known as X86_64 or AMD64.
It's an instruction set for 32-bit processors. 64-bit processors are called x86_64 processors AFAIK.