The processor architecture of most PCs and servers, including the 386/486/Pentium/… (IA-32) 32-bit family and the amd64 64-bit family. Most x86 processors are made by Intel or AMD.
x86 is a family of processor architectures. Almost all desktop, laptop and server computers have an x86 processor made by Intel or AMD as their CPU. Today, x86 comprises two major architectures:
- IA-32, a 32-bit architecture introduced in the 80386 processor and found in all subsequent generations including all Pentium generations.
- x86-64, also known as amd64, a 64-bit architecture found in most recent x86 processors, which retains IA-32 as a subset. (Not to be confused with IA-64, also called Itanium, a different 64-bit architecture from Intel used in a few high-end servers and high-performance computers.)
