When covering hardware features, our strategy is quite simple: only sketch the features that are totally hardware-driven while detailing those that need some software support. In fact, we are interested in kernel design rather than in computer architecture.
Our next step in choosing our path consisted of selecting the computer system to describe. Although Linux is now running on several kinds of personal computers and workstations, we decided to concentrate on the very popular and cheap IBM-compatible personal computers—and thus on the 80×86 microprocessors and on some support chips included in these personal computers. The term 80×86 microprocessor will be used in the forthcoming chapters to denote the Intel 80386, 80486, Pentium,Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 microprocessors or compatible models. In a few cases, explicit references will be made to specific models.
在描述硬件特性时，我们采取的策略很简单：只描述那些完全由硬件驱动的特性，同时也会详尽的说明那些需要一些软件支持的特性。事实上我们更关注内核设计而不是计算机架构。
紧接着我们就要描绘以下我们选择的计算机系统。尽管现在Linux已经在多种PC和工作站中广泛运行，我们依然决定把重点放在非常流行且价格较低的IBM兼容机——因此选择80X86微控制器和这些PC包含的一些支持芯片。在接下来的章节中“80X86微处理器”一词将用于英特尔80386, 80486, Pentium,Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4微处理器或兼容机型。在少数情况下我们在专门引用一些特殊的机型时将做明确的说明。