[python] Include guidance for older CPU architectures (#2643) (#2656)

* [python] Include guidance for older CPU architectures * code-review feedback
single-cell-data · May 30, 2024 · d8c21e2 · d8c21e2
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diff --git a/apis/python/README.md b/apis/python/README.md
@@ -26,6 +26,16 @@ To update to the latest version:
 $ python -m pip install --upgrade tiledbsoma
 ```
 
+In case of `illegal instruction` errors when running on older architectures --- e.g. Opteron, non-AVX2 --- the issue is that the pre-compiled binaries available at Conda or PyPI aren't targeted for all processor variants over time. You can install from source, as shown below.
+
+To see if this is the issue, on Linux:
+
+```
+grep avx2 /proc/cpuinfo
+```
+
+If this comes up empty for your system, you'll definitely need to build from source to run TileDB-SOMA on that system.
+
 ## From source
 
 * This requires [`tiledb`](https://github.com/TileDB-Inc/TileDB-Py) (see [./setup.cfg](setup.cfg) for version), in addition to other dependencies in [setup.cfg](./setup.cfg).