x86-64
x86-64 is the architecture you get when you don’t choose one. AMD extended Intel’s 32-bit x86 to 64 bits in 2003 — Intel adopted the extension soon after — and it has been the default for desktops and servers since. The lineage runs unbroken back to the 8086 of 1978, which is why the instruction encoding looks the way it does.
In a lab it plays two roles. It is the reference platform: the architecture everything else gets compared against when a build breaks or a byte order flips. And it is the cheapest serious compute there is — a used dual-Xeon rack server costs a few hundred dollars, paid for in watts and fan noise, and decommissioned firewall appliances are ordinary x86 boxes in a quieter shape.
In this family
x86-64— also written amd64 or x64; little-endian, CISC ancestry, 64-bit since 2003.
In the lab
- Apple Mac mini Models from 2011 through 2020, Intel through Apple silicon.
- Dell PowerEdge R730 An x86-64 rack server.
- Dell PowerEdge R740 An x86-64 rack server, a generation newer than the R730.
- Sophos XG/SG 210 rev 3 x86-64 appliances, running Linux as firewalls.