diff --git a/S02-bits.pod b/S02-bits.pod
index 2c394f2b0..dcaf5c9f8 100644
--- a/S02-bits.pod
+++ b/S02-bits.pod
@@ -2127,7 +2127,7 @@ Here are some possibilities:
 
 The following return objects that contain all pertinent info:
 
-    $?OS        Which operating system am I compiled for?
+    $?KERNEL    Which kernel am I compiled for?
     $?DISTRO    Which OS distribution am I compiling under
     $?VM        Which virtual machine am I compiling under
     $?XVM       Which virtual machine am I cross-compiling for
@@ -2155,7 +2155,7 @@ compile time, so dead code can be eliminated by the optimizer.
 
 Note that some of these things have parallels in the C<*> space at run time:
 
-    $*OS        Which OS I'm running under
+    $*KERNEL    Which kernel I'm running under
     $*DISTRO    Which OS distribution I'm running under
     $*VM        Which VM I'm running under
     $*PERL      Which Perl I'm running under
diff --git a/S28-special-names.pod b/S28-special-names.pod
index a104e3b91..746965d15 100644
--- a/S28-special-names.pod
+++ b/S28-special-names.pod
@@ -67,6 +67,8 @@ be fleshed out in S26.
  $!                S04                # Current Exception object
  $/                S05   Match        # Last match
  $0, $1, $2        S05   Str          # First captured value from match: $/[0]
+ $?ARCH                  SoftwarePackage # Host architecture
+ $?XARCH                 SoftwarePackage # Target architecture 
  @*ARGS            S06   Array of Str # command-line arguments
  $*ARGFILES        S02   IO           # The magic command-line input handle
  &?BLOCK           S06   Block        # current block (itself)
@@ -96,8 +98,8 @@ be fleshed out in S26.
  $?MODULE          S02   Module       # current module
  %*OPTS            S19   Hash of XXX  # Options from command line
  %*OPT...          S19   Hash of XXX  # Options from command line to be passed down
- $?OS                    SoftwarePackage # operating system compiled for
- $*OS                    SoftwarePackage # operating system running under
+ $?KERNEL                SoftwarePackage # operating system compiled for
+ $*KERNEL                SoftwarePackage # operating system running under
  $*OUT             S16   IO           # Standard output handle
  $?PARSER          S02   Grammar      # Which Perl grammar was used to parse this statement?
  $?PACKAGE         S02   Package      # current package
@@ -113,8 +115,8 @@ be fleshed out in S26.
  $?SCOPE           S02                # Current "my" scope (XXX unnecessary?)
  $*UID                   Int          # system user id
  $?USAGE           S06   Str          # Default usage message generated at compile time
- $?VM              S02   Str          # Which virtual machine am I compiling under
- $?XVM             S02   Str          # Which virtual machine am I cross-compiling for
+ $?VM              S02   SoftwarePackage # Which virtual machine am I compiling under
+ $?XVM             S02   SoftwarePackage # Which virtual machine am I cross-compiling for
 
 Note that contextual variables such as C<$*OUT> may have more than
 one current definition in the outer dynamic context, in which case