Raspberry Pi Zero W is ARMv6 or ARMv7?

Question

I would like update Node.js to the latest version and I need to choose between ARMv6 and ARMv7. From the package manager point of view this is an ARMv6 processor and dmesg tells it is

CPU: ARMv6-compatible processor [410fb767] revision 7 (ARMv7) 

so... probably ARMv7.

Googling, I saw lot of people used ARMv7 without problem. But is it correct?

Answer 1

First: It's ARMv6.

The Zero uses the original BCM2835 SoC used on the first generation of Pi's and all the other single core models, with a ARM1176JZF-S processor (although the Zero models have ones binned as 1000 Mhz instead of 700).

All ARM11 cores use the ARMv6 instruction set architecture. Since those using ARMv7 or 8 are backward compatible with ARMv6, Raspbian has stuck with that. This is also the reason most of the distros used on the multicore models cannot be used on the Zero -- because they are ARMv7.

Answer 2

According to the Wikipedia page, these are the instruction sets used for each Pi model:

• Armv6-M
  • Raspberry Pi Pico
  • Raspberry Pi Pico W
• ARMv6Z (32-bit)
  • Raspberry Pi 1 Model A
  • Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+
  • Raspberry Pi 1 Model B
  • Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+
  • Compute Module 1
  • Raspberry Pi Zero PCB v1.2
  • Raspberry Pi Zero PCB v1.3
  • Raspberry Pi Zero W
• ARMv7-A (32-bit)
  • Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
• ARMv8-A (64/32-bit)
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+
  • Raspberry Pi 2 Model B v1.2
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
  • Compute Module 3
  • Compute Module 3 Lite
  • Compute Module 3+
  • Compute Module 3+ Lite
  • Compute Module 4
  • Compute Module 4 Lite
  • Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
  • Raspberry Pi 400
• ARMv8.2-A (64/32-bit)
  • Raspberry Pi 5