In this case, "Architecture" refers to the computer platform the user wishes to deploy Debian on.
Here's a table describing the status of the various platforms.
Linux:
Chip |
Manufacturer |
Status |
Comments |
Alpha |
?HewlettPackard (formerly Compaq, formerly Digital) |
Supported |
|
?StrongArm |
Intel |
Supported |
Corel ?NetWinder, the ["CompaqIPAQHandheld"] , Sharp Zaurus |
hppa |
?HewlettPackard |
Supported |
HP Precision Architecture |
["i386"] |
Intel/AMD/Cyrix/... |
Supported |
The original platform |
ia64 |
Intel |
Supported |
Itanium |
m68k |
Motorola |
Supported |
["Amiga"], ["AtariST"], old Macintoshes, some old Sun hardware (sun3) |
mips |
SGI |
Supported |
SGI Graphics Workstations run on this RISC chip |
mipsel |
Digital |
Supported |
Digital Decstations, little endian |
["PowerPC"] |
IBM/Motorola/Apple |
Supported |
Newer Macintoshes |
s390 |
IBM |
Supported |
?BigIron - IBM mainframe platform |
s390x |
IBM |
In progress |
Newer ?BigIron - IBM mainframe platform |
sh |
Hitachi |
In progress |
?PlayStation |
sparc |
Sun |
Supported |
sun4 |
sparc64 |
Sun |
In development |
sun4u |
x86-64 |
AMD |
In development |
Opteron |
non-Linux:
hurd-i386 |
see TheHurd |
In progress |
Not a hardware platform |
netbsd-i386 |
["NetBSD"] kernel |
In progress |
Not a hardware platform |
netbsd-alpha |
["NetBSD"] kernel |
In progress |
Not a hardware platform |
freebsd-i386 |
["FreeBSD"] kernel |
In progress |
Not a hardware platform |