As with software, there are different releases of the Intel 80386 and 80486 family processors. The different releases of the processors are known as stepping levels. Later stepping levels fix bugs that were found in earlier stepping levels of the processor. OS/2 V2.0 will take into account the different stepping levels of processors and handle any nuances. An example would be when OS/2 V2.0 is running on an 80386 at B1 stepping level, with a numeric coprocessor present; OS/2 V2.0 will disable the coprocessor and provide emulation for the coprocessor, as it would do if the coprocessor were not present. This is one of the ways in which OS/2 V2.0 will circumvent the known bugs in a 80386 at B1 stepping level. Bugs such as these were fixed in the 80386SX and 80486 processors. In the case of the 80386 processor, a stepping level of D0 or higher is preferred.
Some early IBM PS/2s might have B1 stepping level 80386 processors on their system boards and might qualify for a free engineering change (EC) to upgrade the system board. If you experience problems running OS/2 on an older system, contact your dealer or the IBM service organization in your country to have your system unit checked.