How does kernel know the type of processor?

[ece lca <ecelca@yahoo.com>]

  Hi, I have a newbie question.
  My kernel is compiled for i386, but when I use
"uname -a", it correctly tells the type of processor
in my machine, which is an i686.
  Could someone give an idea how the kernel does this?
  Thank you.

Yue


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