.\"	$NetBSD: whatis,v 1.9 1999/03/23 21:02:09 perry Exp $
.Pp
As is usual between releases, the i386 port has had many improvements
made to it -- too many to detail all of them here.
.Pp
Numerous new drivers have been added. See the supported hardware list
for details.
.Pp
Some (but not all!) notable i386-specific improvements include:
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.Bl -bullet
.It
New i386 boot blocks now support INT13 extensions. This means that on
modern BIOSes, it is possible to boot a NetBSD partition that is past
the old 1024 cylinder boundary. The new boot blocks also support a
mechanism to pass BIOS geometry information to the kernel, permitting
improved automation during installs.
.It
The i386 port also now uses libkvm -- libkvm.old has finally been purged.
.El
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.Nx 1.4
on i386 is, as usual, also fully backward compatible with old
.Nx
i386 binaries, so you don't need to recompile all your local programs
provided you set the appropriate binary compatibility options in your
kernel configuration.
.Pp
The i386 will be switching executable formats from a.out to ELF in
the next release. The support for this has already been completed, but 
was judged too new to be included in
.Nx 1.4 .