Determine target ISA extensions of binary file in Linux (library or executable)

Question

We have an issue related to a Java application running under a (rather old) FC3 on an Advantech POS board with a Via C3 processor. The java application has several compiled

Answer 1

To answer the ambiguity of whether a Via C3 is a i686 class processor: It's not, it's an i586 class processor.

Cyrix never produced a true 686 class processor, despite their marketing claims with the 6x86MX and MII parts. Among other missing instructions, two important ones they didn't have were CMPXCHG8b and CPUID, which were required to run Windows XP and beyond.

National Semiconductor, AMD and VIA have all produced CPU designs based on the Cyrix 5x86/6x86 core (NxP MediaGX, AMD Geode, VIA C3/C7, VIA Corefusion, etc.) which have resulted in oddball designs where you have a 586 class processor with SSE1/2/3 instruction sets.

My recommendation if you come across any of the CPUs listed above and it's not for a vintage computer project (ie. Windows 98SE and prior) then run screaming away from it. You'll be stuck on slow i386/486 Linux or have to recompile all of your software with Cyrix specific optimizations.