PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar Instruction sets for RISC Microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM CPU design is the Design engineering task of creating a Central processing unit (CPU a component of Computer hardware. POWER is a RISC Instruction set architecture designed by IBM. The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built The IBM RS64 family of processors is used in the late 1990s for IBM's RS/6000 and AS/400 server product lines The IBM POWER2 (originally named RIOS2) microprocessor was released in 1993 as the successor of the POWER1. The POWER3 chip is a CPU, designed and exclusively manufactured by IBM, that implements the 32/64-bit PowerPC Instruction set architecture PowerPC G4 is a designation used by Apple Computer to describe a fourth generation of 32-bit PowerPC Microprocessors Apple has applied this The POWER4 chip is a CPU that implements the 64-bit PowerPC architecture. Gekko is a 32-bit PowerPC Microprocessor custom made by IBM in 2000 for Nintendo to use as the CPU in their sixth The AIM alliance was an alliance formed in September 1991 between Apple Computer, IBM and Motorola to create a new computing standard based The PowerPC e200 is a family of 32-bit Power Architecture Microprocessor cores developed by Freescale for primary use in Automotive The PowerPC e300 is a family of 32-bit Power Architecture Microprocessor cores developed by Freescale for primary use in System-on-a-chip The PowerPC e500 is a 32-bit Power Architecture based Microprocessor core from Freescale. The PowerPC e600 is a family of 32-bit Power Architecture Microprocessor cores developed by Freescale for primary use in high performance PWRficient is the name of a series of Microprocessors designed by P POWER5 is a Microprocessor developed by IBM. It is an improved variant of the highly successful POWER4. The POWER6 microprocessor is IBM 's follow-on to the POWER5. It is part of the eCLipz project, said The PowerPC 400 family is a line of 32-bit embedded RISC - processor cores built using Power Architecture technology PowerPC G3 is a designation used by Apple Computer to a third generation of PowerPC Microprocessors from the PowerPC 750 family designed The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, PowerPC 970GX, and PowerPC 970MP, are 64-bit Power Architecture processors from IBM Cell is a Microprocessor architecture jointly developed by Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM, an Xenon is a CPU that is used in the Xbox 360 game console The processor internally codenamed "Waternoose" by IBM and "XCPU" Broadway is the name of the Central Processing Unit (CPU used in Nintendo's Wii Video game console. POWER7 is a Microprocessor currently under development at about a dozen IBM sites including IBM 's The PowerPC e700 or NG-64 (Next Generation 64-bit is a line of future high performance 64-bit embedded RISC - processor cores built Titan is a family of 32-bit Power Architecture based Microprocessors designed by Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC The System p, formerly known as RS/6000, was IBM 's RISC / UNIX -based server and workstation product line The IBM System i is IBM's previous generation of systems designed for IBM i users and was subsequently replaced by the IBM Power Systems in April 2008 Powerorg is an organization whose purpose is to develop enable and promote Power Architecture technology Power Architecture Platform Reference (PAPR is an initiative from Power PowerPC Reference Platform ( PReP) was a standard System architecture for PowerPC based computer systems (as well as a Reference implementation Common Hardware Reference Platform ( CHRP) was a standard System architecture for PowerPC based computer systems published jointly by IBM A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated CPU design is the Design engineering task of creating a Central processing unit (CPU a component of Computer hardware. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Motorola Inc ( is an American, multinational Fortune 100, Telecommunications company based in Schaumburg Illinois. The AIM alliance was an alliance formed in September 1991 between Apple Computer, IBM and Motorola to create a new computing standard based Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated An embedded system is a special-purpose Computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions often with Real-time computing constraints PowerPC was the cornerstone of AIM's PReP and Common Hardware Reference Platform initiatives in the 1990s, but the architecture found the most success in the personal computer market in Apple's Macintosh lines from 1994 to 2006 (before Apple's transition to Intel). PowerPC Reference Platform ( PReP) was a standard System architecture for PowerPC based computer systems (as well as a Reference implementation Common Hardware Reference Platform ( CHRP) was a standard System architecture for PowerPC based computer systems published jointly by IBM Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The Apple Intel transition was the process of changing the CPU of Macintosh Computers from PowerPC processors to Intel X86

PowerPC is largely based on IBM's earlier POWER architecture, and retains a high level of compatibility with it; the architectures have remained close enough that the same programs and operating systems will run on both if some care is taken in preparation; newer chips in the POWER series implement the full PowerPC instruction set. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology POWER is a RISC Instruction set architecture designed by IBM. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination

History

IBM PowerPC 601 Microprocessor

A schematic showing the evolution of the different POWER, PowerPC and Power ISAs. POWER is a RISC Instruction set architecture designed by IBM. Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar Instruction sets for RISC Microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM An instruction set is a list of all the instructions and all their variations that a processor can execute

The history of the PowerPC begins with IBM's 801 prototype chip of John Cocke's RISC ideas in the late 1970s. The 801 was a RISC CPU designed by IBM in the 1970s and used in various roles in IBM until the 1980s John Cocke ( May 30 1925 – July 16, 2002) was an American Computer scientist recognised for his large contribution to Computer 801-based cores were used in a number of IBM embedded products, eventually becoming the 16-register ROMP processor used in the IBM RT. The ROMP or Research (Office Products Division Micro Processor chip also known in some circles as 032, was first in silicon in 1981 and was originally designed to The IBM RT (or IBM 6150 series was a Computer workstation sold by IBM and based around IBM's ROMP The RT had disappointing performance and IBM started the America Project to build the fastest processor on the market. The result was the POWER architecture, introduced with the RISC System/6000 in early 1990. POWER is a RISC Instruction set architecture designed by IBM. The System p, formerly known as RS/6000, was IBM 's RISC / UNIX -based server and workstation product line

The original POWER microprocessor, one of the first superscalar RISC implementations, was a high performance, multi-chip design. A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called Instruction-level parallelism within a single processor IBM soon realized that they would need a single-chip microprocessor and to eliminate some POWER processor instructions to scale their RS/6000 line from lower-end to high-end machines, and work on a single-chip POWER microprocessor, called the RSC (RISC Single Chip) began. RISC Single Chip (RSC is a single chip microprocessor based on POWER1, used in IBM RS/6000 models 220 and 230 In early 1991 IBM realized that their design could potentially become a high-volume microprocessor used across the industry.

IBM approached Apple with the goal of collaborating on the development of a family of single-chip microprocessors based on the POWER architecture. Soon after, Apple, as one of Motorola's largest customers of desktop-class microprocessors, asked Motorola to join the discussions because of their long relationship, their more extensive experience with manufacturing high-volume microprocessors than IBM and to serve as a second source for the microprocessors. This three-way collaboration became known as AIM alliance, for Apple, IBM, Motorola.

In 1991, the PowerPC was just one facet of a larger alliance between these three companies. On the other side was the growing dominance of Microsoft and Windows in personal computing, and of Intel processors. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. At the time, most of the personal computer industry was shipping systems based on the Intel 80386 and 80486 chips, which had a CISC architecture, and development of the Pentium processor was well underway. The Pentium brand refers to Intel 's single-core x86 Microprocessor based on the P5 fifth-generation Microarchitecture. The PowerPC chip was one of several joint ventures involving the three, in their efforts to counter the growing Microsoft-Intel dominance of personal computing.

To Motorola, POWER looked like an unbelievable deal. It allowed them to sell a widely tested and powerful RISC CPU for little design cash on their own part. It also maintained ties with an important customer, Apple, and seemed to offer the possibility of adding another in IBM who might buy smaller versions from them instead of making their own.

At this point Motorola already had its own RISC design in the form of the 88000 which was doing poorly in the market. The 88000 ( m88k for short is a Microprocessor design produced by Motorola. Motorola was doing well with their 68000 family and the majority of the funding was focused on this. The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor The 88000 effort was somewhat starved for resources.

However, the 88000 was already in production; Data General was shipping 88k machines and Apple already had 88k prototype machines running. Data General was one of the first Minicomputer firms from the late 1960s The 88000 had also achieved a number of embedded design wins in telecom applications. If the new POWER single-chip solution could be made bus-compatible at a hardware level with the 88000, that would allow both Apple and Motorola to bring machines to market much faster since they would not have to redesign their board architecture.

The result of these various requirements was the PowerPC (Performance Computing) specification.

When the first PowerPC products reached the market, they were met with enthusiasm. In addition to Apple, both IBM and the Motorola Computer Group offered systems built around the processors. Microsoft released Windows NT 3.51 for the architecture, which was used in Motorola's PowerPC servers, and Sun Microsystems offered a version of its Solaris OS. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows NT 351 is the third release of Microsoft 's Windows NT line of Operating systems It was released on May 30 1995, nine months Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services Solaris is a Unix -based Operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS. IBM ported its AIX Unix and planned a release of OS/2. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively Throughout the mid-1990s, PowerPC processors achieved Benchmark test scores that matched or exceeded those of the fastest x86 CPUs. This article is about the use of benchmarks in computing for other uses see Benchmark.

Ultimately, demand for the new architecture on the desktop never truly materialized. Windows, OS/2 and Sun customers, faced with the lack of application software for the PowerPC, almost universally ignored the chip. The PowerPC versions of Solaris, OS/2, and Windows were discontinued after only a brief period on the market. Only on the Macintosh, due to Apple's persistence, did the PowerPC gain traction. To Apple, the performance of the PowerPC was a bright spot in the face of increased competition from Windows 95 and Windows NT-based PCs.

In parallel with the alliance between IBM and Motorola, both companies had development efforts underway internally. The PowerQUICC line was the result of this work inside Motorola. The 4xx series of embedded processors was underway inside IBM. The IBM embedded processor business grew to nearly 100 million in revenue and attracted hundreds of customers.

However, toward the close of the decade, the same manufacturing issues began plaguing the AIM alliance in much the same way it did Motorola, which consistently pushed back deployments of new processors for Apple and other vendors: first from Motorola in the 1990s with the G3 and G4 processors, and IBM with the 64-bit G5 processor in 2003. In 2004, Motorola exited the chip manufacturing business by spinning off its semiconductor business as an independent company called Freescale Semiconductor. Freescale Semiconductor Inc is an American Semiconductor manufacturer Around the same time, IBM exited the embedded processor market by selling its line of PowerPC products to Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) and focused their chip designs for PowerPC CPUs towards game machine makers such as Nintendo's GameCube and Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. Applied Micro Circuits Corporation ( is a Fabless semiconductor company designing network and embedded Power Architecture (including a Power is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Kyoto Japan founded on The, often abbreviated as GCN, is Nintendo 's fourth home Video game console and is part of the sixth generation console era. is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. In 2005 Apple announced they would no longer use PowerPC processors in their Apple Macintosh computers, favoring Intel produced processors instead, citing the performance limitations of the chip for future personal computer hardware specifically related to heat generation and energy usage in future products, as well as the inability of IBM to move the 970 (PowerPC G5) processor to the 3 GHz range. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, PowerPC 970GX, and PowerPC 970MP, are 64-bit Power Architecture processors from IBM The IBM-Freescale alliance was replaced by an open standards body called Power. org. Power. org operates under the governance of the IEEE with IBM continuing to use and evolve the PowerPC processor on game consoles and Freescale Semiconductor focusing solely on embedded devices.

IBM continues to develop PowerPC microprocessor cores for use in their ASIC offerings. Many high volume applications embed PowerPC cores.

The POWER architecture IBM developed is still very much alive on their server offerings for large businesses and continues to evolve to this day (and current POWER processors implement the full PowerPC instruction set architecture).

The PowerPC specification is now handled by Power. org where IBM, Freescale, and AMCC are members. PowerPC, Cell and POWER processors are now jointly marketed as the Power Architecture. Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar Instruction sets for RISC Microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM Power. org released a unified ISA, combining POWER and PowerPC ISAs into the new Power ISA v. 2. 03 specification and a new reference platform for servers called PAPR (Power Architecture Platform Reference).

Design features

The PowerPC is designed along RISC principles, and allows for a superscalar implementation. A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called Instruction-level parallelism within a single processor Versions of the design exist in both 32-bit and 64-bit implementations. Starting with the basic POWER specification, the PowerPC added:

• Support for operation in both big-endian and little-endian modes; the PowerPC can switch from one mode to the other at run-time (see below). PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM This feature is not supported in the PowerPC G5. The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, PowerPC 970GX, and PowerPC 970MP, are 64-bit Power Architecture processors from IBM This was the reason Virtual PC took so long to be made functional on G5-based Macintosh computers. Microsoft Virtual PC is a Virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows Operating systems and an Emulation suite for
• Single-precision forms of some floating point instructions, in addition to double-precision forms
• Additional floating point instructions at the behest of Apple
• A complete 64-bit specification, which is backward compatible with the 32-bit mode
• Removal of some of the more esoteric POWER instructions, some of which could be emulated by the operating system if necessary. In Computing, floating point describes a system for numerical representation in which a string of digits (or Bits represents a Real number. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination
• A paged memory management architecture which is used extensively in server and PC systems.
• Addition of a new memory management architecture called Book-E, replacing the conventional paged memory management architecture for embedded applications. Book-E is application software compatible with existing PowerPC implementations, but requires minor changes to the operating system.

Endian modes

Some of IBM's embedded PowerPC chips use a per-page endianness bit. None of the following applies to them.

Most PowerPC chips switch endianness via a bit in the MSR (Machine State Register), with a second bit provided to allow the OS to run with a different endianness. Accesses to the "inverted page table" (a hash table that functions as a TLB with off-chip storage) are always done in big-endian mode. A Translation lookaside buffer ( TLB) is a CPU cache that is used by memory management hardware to improve the speed of Virtual address The processor starts in big-endian mode.

In little-endian mode, the three lowest-order bits of the effective address are exclusive-ORed with a three bit value selected by the length of the operand. This is enough to appear fully little-endian to normal software. An operating system will see a warped view of the world when it accesses external chips such as video and network hardware. Fixing this warped view of the world requires that the motherboard perform an unconditional 64-bit byte swap on all data entering or leaving the processor. Endianness thus becomes a property of the motherboard. An OS that operates in little-endian mode on a big-endian motherboard must both swap bytes and undo the exclusive-OR when accessing little-endian chips.

AltiVec operations, despite being 128-bit, are treated as if they were 64-bit. AltiVec is a Floating point and integer SIMD Instruction set designed and owned by Apple, IBM and Freescale Semiconductor This allows for compatibility with little-endian motherboards that were designed prior to AltiVec.

An interesting side-effect of this implementation is that a program can store a 64-bit value (the longest operand format) to memory while in one endian mode, switch modes, and read back the same 64-bit value without seeing a change of byte order. This will not be the case if the motherboard is switched at the same time.

Mercury Computer Systems and Matrox ran the PowerPC in little-endian mode. Mercury Computer Systems Inc provides high-performance embedded real-time digital signal and image processing solutions Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd is a Canadian company based in Dorval Quebec, which produces video card components and equipment for Personal computers This was done so that PowerPC devices serving as co-processors on PCI boards could share data structures with host computers based on x86. See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal Both PCI and x86 are little-endian. Solaris and Windows NT for PowerPC also ran the processor in little-endian mode.

Implementations

IBM PowerPC 604e 200 MHz

The first single-chip implementation of the design was the PowerPC 601, released in 1992, based on the RSC, implementing a hybrid of the POWER1 and PowerPC specifications. The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) This allowed the chip to be used by IBM in their existing POWER1 based platforms, although it also meant some slight pain when switching to the 2nd generation "pure" PowerPC designs. Apple continued work on a new line of Macintosh computers based on the chip, and eventually released them as the 601-based Power Macintosh on March 14, 1994. Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar)

IBM also had a full line of PowerPC based desktops built and ready to ship; unfortunately, the operating system which IBM had intended to run on these desktops—Microsoft Windows NT—was not complete by early 1993, when the machines were ready for marketing. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Accordingly, and further because IBM had developed animosity toward Microsoft, IBM decided to rewrite OS/2 for the PowerPC. OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively It took IBM two years to rewrite OS/2 for PowerPC, and by the time the operating system was ready, the market for OS/2 on PowerPC had evaporated. A rewrite in Computer programming is the act or result of re-implementing a large portion of existing functionality without re-use of its Source code. For this reason, the IBM PowerPC desktops did not ship, although the reference design (codenamed Sandalbow) based on the PowerPC 601 CPU was released as an RS/6000 model (Byte magazine 's April 1994 issue included an extensive article about the Apple and IBM PowerPC desktops). Byte magazine was an influential Microcomputer magazine in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage

Apple, who also lacked a PowerPC based OS, took a different route. They rewrote the essential pieces of their Mac OS operating system for the PowerPC architecture, and further wrote a 680x0 emulator that could run 68K based applications and the parts of the OS that had not been rewritten. Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc The Mac 68K emulator was a Software Emulator built into all versions of the Mac OS for PowerPC. The Motorola 680x0 / m68k / 68k / 68K is a family of 32-bit CISC Microprocessor CPU chips and was the primary

The second generation was "pure" and included the "low end" PowerPC 603 and "high end" PowerPC 604. The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built The 603 is notable due to its very low cost and power consumption. This was a deliberate design goal on Motorola's part, who used the 603 project to build the basic core for all future generations of PPC chips. Apple tried to use the 603 in a new laptop design but was unable to due to the small 8 KiB level 1 cache. A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International The 68000 emulator in the Mac OS could not fit in 8 KiB and thus slowed the computer drastically. The 603e solved this problem by having a 16 KiB L1 cache which allowed the emulator to run efficiently. The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built

Custom PowerPC CPU found in Nintendo's Wii video game console

In 1993, developers at IBM's Essex Junction, Burlington, Vermont facility started to work on a version of the PowerPC that would support the Intel x86 instruction set directly on the CPU. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Essex Junction is a village in the town of Essex, Chittenden County, Vermont, United States incorporated on November 15, 1892 See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal While the work was done by IBM without the support of the AIM alliance, this chip began to be known inside IBM and by the media as the PowerPC 615. The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built However, profitability concerns and rumors of performance issues in the switching between the x86 and native PowerPC instruction sets resulted in the project being canceled in 1995 after only a limited number of chips were produced for in-house testing. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 Despite the rumors, the switching process in fact took a mere 5 cycles, or the amount of time required for the processor to empty its instruction pipeline. Microsoft also had a hand in the processor's downfall by refusing to support the PowerPC mode. ^[1]

The first 64-bit implementation was the PowerPC 620, but it appears to have seen little use because Apple didn't want to buy it and because, with its large die area, it was too expensive for the embedded market. The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built It was later and slower than promised, and IBM used their own POWER3 design instead, offering no 64-bit "small" solution until the late-2002 introduction of the PowerPC 970. The POWER3 chip is a CPU, designed and exclusively manufactured by IBM, that implements the 32/64-bit PowerPC Instruction set architecture See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, PowerPC 970GX, and PowerPC 970MP, are 64-bit Power Architecture processors from IBM The 970 is a 64-bit processor derived from the POWER4 server processor. The POWER4 chip is a CPU that implements the 64-bit PowerPC architecture. To create it, the POWER4 core was modified to be backward-compatible with 32-bit PowerPC processors, and a vector unit (similar to the AltiVec extensions in Motorola's 74xx series) was added. AltiVec is a Floating point and integer SIMD Instruction set designed and owned by Apple, IBM and Freescale Semiconductor

IBM's RS64 processors are a family of chips implementing the "Amazon" variant of the PowerPC architecture. The IBM RS64 family of processors is used in the late 1990s for IBM's RS/6000 and AS/400 server product lines These processors are used in the RS/6000 and AS/400 computer families; the Amazon architecture includes proprietary extensions used by AS/400. The System p, formerly known as RS/6000, was IBM 's RISC / UNIX -based server and workstation product line The IBM System i is IBM's previous generation of systems designed for IBM i users and was subsequently replaced by the IBM Power Systems in April 2008 The POWER4 and later POWER processors implement the Amazon architecture and replaced the RS64 chips in the RS/6000 and AS/400 families.

IBM developed a separate product line called the "4xx" line focused on the embedded market. These designs included the 401, 403, 405, 440, and 460. In 2004, IBM sold their 4xx product line to Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC). AMCC continues to develop new high performance products, partly based on IBM's technology, along with technology that was developed within AMCC. These products focus in a variety of applications including networking, wireless, storage, printing/imaging and industrial automation.

Numerically, the PowerPC is mostly found in controllers in cars. Almost half the world's automobiles have at least one PowerPC controller in them.

For the automotive market, Freescale Semiconductor initially offered a large number of variations called the MPC5xx family such as the MPC555, built on a variation of the 601 core called the 8xx and designed in Israel by MSIL (Motorola Silicon Israel Limited). The MPC5xx family of processors such as the MPC555 and MPC565 are 32-bit PowerPC embedded Microprocessors that operate between 40 and The 601 core is single issue, meaning it can only issue one instruction in a clock cycle. To this they add various bits of custom hardware, to allow for I/O on the single chip. In 2004, the next-generation four-digit 55xx devices were launched for the automotive market. The PowerPC 5000 family is a series of Power Architecture Microprocessors from Freescale (previously Motorola) designed for Automotive These use the newer e200 series of PowerPC cores. The PowerPC e200 is a family of 32-bit Power Architecture Microprocessor cores developed by Freescale for primary use in Automotive

The Freescale XPC855T Service Processor of a Sun SunFire V20z

Networking is another area where embedded PowerPC processors are found in large numbers. Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services The Sun Fire server brand is a series of server computers introduced by Sun Microsystems in 2001 MSIL took the QUICC engine from the MC68302 and made the PowerQUICC MPC860. QUICC is the abbreviation of QU ad I ntegrated C ommunications C ontroller The Freescale 683XX (formerly Motorola 683XX) is a family of compatible Microcontrollers that use a Freescale 68000 -based CPU core PowerQUICC is the name for several Power Architecture based Microcontrollers from Freescale Semiconductor. This was a very famous processor used in many Cisco edge routers in the late 1990s. Variants of the PowerQUICC include the MPC850, and the MPC823/MPC823e. All variants include a separate RISC microengine called the CPM that offloads communications processing tasks from the central processor and has functions for DMA. Direct memory access ( DMA) is a feature of modern Computers and Microprocessors that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system The follow-on chip from this family, the MPC8260, has a 603e-based core and a different CPM.

F-35 Lightning II fighter jet

In 2003, BAE SYSTEMS Platform Solutions delivers the Vehicle-Management Computer for the F-35 fighter jet. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout This platform consists of dual PowerPCs made by Freescale in a triple redundant setup. ^[2]

Operating systems

Operating systems that work on the PowerPC architecture are generally divided into those which are oriented towards the general-purpose PowerPC systems, and those oriented towards the embedded PowerPC systems. An embedded system is a special-purpose Computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions often with Real-time computing constraints

Note that a 64-bit PowerPC application which does not need 64-bit math will run slightly slower than if it were compiled in 32-bit mode. This is because 64-bit pointers and longs consume twice as much memory as their 32-bit conterparts, so the CPU cache will be able to hold fewer data and memory accesses will be more frequent. This is not true in general as, for example, on the EM64T/AMD64 architecture only 8 registers are available in "legacy" 32-bit mode, while 16 are available in the 64-bit mode^[3], an increase which can speed up procedures with large numbers of local variables and cut down memory accesses. x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. Therefore it is not necessary to run a fully 64-bit operating system on a 64-bit PowerPC system; you obtain virtually all of the advantages of the 64-bit architecture by using a 64-bit kernel with 32-bit system software. A tiny minority of software requires a 64-bit build, typically those dealing with >3 GB of virtual memory or 64-bit integer math.

General-purpose

• Apple's Macintosh System 7.1.2 through Mac OS X. System 7 (codenamed "Big Bang" and sometimes called Mac OS 7) is a single-user Graphical user interface -based Operating system for Macintosh Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently
• Linux
  • Crux PPC
  • Debian, with 32-bit powerpc a released port^[4], and ppc64 in development^[5]. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks CRUX is a lightweight I686 -optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users Debian ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free and open source software. ppc64 is an identifier commonly used within the Linux and GCC Open source software communities to refer to the target architecture for applications Due to the considerations above the developers recommend using the 32-bit "powerpc" port on 64-bit systems (with an appropriate 64-bit kernel).
  • Fedora with 32 bit ppc releases ^[6]
  • Gentoo Linux, with 32-bit ppc releases^[7] and an obsolete 64-bit ppc64 release. The Fedora Operating system is an RPM -based general purpose Linux distribution, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored The Gentoo Linux Operating system (ˈdʒɛntuː is a Linux distribution based on the Portage Package management system. ppc64 is an identifier commonly used within the Linux and GCC Open source software communities to refer to the target architecture for applications Due to the considerations above the developers recommend using the 32-bit "ppc" release on 64-bit systems (with an appropriate 64-bit kernel).
  • OpenSUSE, Full support for Old World and New World PowerMacs(32 & 64bit), PS3/Cell, and IBM POWER systems. SUSE Linux distributions openSUSE, (ˌoʊpɛnˈsuːzə is a general purpose Operating system developed by the OpenSUSE Project.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Slackintosh
  • Ubuntu Linux, Community Supported for all versions released after 6. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a Linux distribution produced by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market including mainframes. Slackintosh is a port of Slackware to the "NewWorld" Macintosh 's PowerPC architecture Ubuntu Kubuntu Edubuntu Xubuntu Gobuntu --> Ubuntu 10 (Edgy Eft) ^[8]
  • Yellow Dog Linux, 32-bit native, 64-bit in beta^[9]
• NetBSD, port designations for PowerPC systems
  • ofppc released^[10]
  • macppc released^[11]
  • evbppc released^[12]
  • pmppc released^[13]
  • mvmeppc released^[14]
  • bebox experimental^[15]
  • amigappc very experimental^[16]
• FreeBSD, 32-bit powerpc released port^[17]
• OpenBSD, 32-bit macppc released port^[18]
• Windows NT 3. Yellow Dog Linux, also YDL, is a free-software, open-source Operating system for the Sony PlayStation 3, PowerPC NetBSD is a freely redistributable Open source version of the Unix -derivative Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD Computer Operating FreeBSD is a Unix-like free Operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD branch through OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer Operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD a Unix derivative developed at the Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 51 and 4. 0 also supported PowerPC processors
• ReactOS is also being ported to the Power ISA. ReactOS is a computer Operating system intended to be binary-compatible with Application software and Device drivers made for Microsoft
• AmigaOS 4. AmigaOS is the default native Operating system of the Amiga personal computer 0
• MorphOS
• IBM AIX
• IBM i5/OS
• OpenSolaris, experimental^[19][20]

Embedded

• LiveDevices RTA-OSEK
• Microware OS-9
• MontaVista Linux
• QNX
• LynxOS
• VxWorks
• eCos
• BlueCat embedded Linux from LynuxWorks
• OSE from ENEA
• Integrity (operating system)

Licensees

Companies that have licensed PowerPC include:

• Altera - FPGA manufactor
• Apple ('A' in original AIM alliance), switched to Intel starting early 2006
• Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC)
• Avago Technologies
• BAE Systems for RAD750 processor, used in spacecraft and planetary landers. MorphOS is a computer Operating system (OS It is a mixed proprietary and Open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC (PPC-processor-based IBM i is an Operating system used on IBM Power Systems, a unified server platform from the former IBM System i and IBM System p servers OpenSolaris is an Open source project created by Sun Microsystems to build a developer community around Solaris Operating System technology OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, Multi-user, Unix-like Operating systems developed in the 1980s MontaVista Software is a Software developer that develops Embedded Linux system software development tools and related software QNX (pronounced either Q-N-X or Q-nix is a commercial Unix-like Real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the Embedded systems market LynxOS does not refer to the operating system for the Atari Lynx Game console. VxWorks is a real-time Operating system made and sold by Wind River Systems of Alameda, California, USA eCos ( embedded configurable operating system) is an Open source, royalty-free Real-time operating system intended for Embedded systems and Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks LynuxWorks Inc is a software company based in San Jose California, that produces embedded operating systems and tools for embedded systems development The Operating System Embedded (mostly known under the Acronym OSE) is a real-time Embedded operating system created by the Swedish ENEA is a Swedish information technology company with its main office in Kista, Sweden. INTEGRITY is a Real-time operating system (RTOS produced and marketed by Green Hills Software. Altera Corporation ( is one of the two major manufacturer of high-end PLDs ( Programmable logic devices, along with Xilinx. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics The AIM alliance was an alliance formed in September 1991 between Apple Computer, IBM and Motorola to create a new computing standard based Applied Micro Circuits Corporation ( is a Fabless semiconductor company designing network and embedded Power Architecture (including a Power Applied Micro Circuits Corporation ( is a Fabless semiconductor company designing network and embedded Power Architecture (including a Power Avago Technologies is an American company which was earlier the Semiconductor products division of HP and later Agilent Technologies, before being BAE Systems plc (BAE is a British defence and aerospace company headquartered in Farnborough, England, that has global interests particularly The RAD750 is a radiation-hardened Single board computer, based on IBM 's PowerPC 750.
• Bandai for its Apple Pippin
• Cisco Systems for routers. is a Japanese Toy making company as well as the producer of a large number of Plastic model kits
• Culturecom for V-Dragon CPU. The PowerPC 400 family is a line of 32-bit embedded RISC - processor cores built using Power Architecture technology
• Exponential Technology X704
• HCL
• LSI Logic
• Microsoft, for the Xbox 360 processor, Xenon. Exponential Technology was a vendor of PowerPC Microprocessors The company was founded by George Taylor and Jim Blomgren in 1993 Hindustan Computers Limited, also known as HCL Enterprise, is one of India 's largest Electronics, Computing and Information technology LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas California that designs ASICs Host bus adapters RAID adapters Storage Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. Xenon is a CPU that is used in the Xbox 360 game console The processor internally codenamed "Waternoose" by IBM and "XCPU"
• Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor), as part of the original AIM alliance. Motorola Inc ( is an American, multinational Fortune 100, Telecommunications company based in Schaumburg Illinois. Freescale Semiconductor Inc is an American Semiconductor manufacturer
• Nintendo for the GameCube and Wii processors. is a Multinational corporation headquartered in Kyoto Japan founded on The, often abbreviated as GCN, is Nintendo 's fourth home Video game console and is part of the sixth generation console era.
• P.A. Semi. PA Semi (originally "Palo Alto Semiconductor" is a Fabless semiconductor company founded in Santa Clara California in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl
• Rapport for Kilocore 1025 core CPU. Kilocore, from Rapport Inc and IBM, is a high-performance low-power multi-core processor with 1025 cores
• Samsung. The Samsung Group ( Korean:, Samsung Guerup) is South Korea 's largest company or Chaebol and the world's largest conglomerate
• STMicroelectronics for the MPC55xx series. STMicroelectronics (,)is an franco-italian Electronics and Semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Sony and Toshiba, for the Cell processor (inside the Playstation 3 and other devices). is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with ( is a multinational conglomerate manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Cell is a Microprocessor architecture jointly developed by Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM, an
• Xilinx - FPGA manufactor, Embedded PowerPC in the Virtex-II Pro and Virtex-4 FPGAs. Xilinx Inc ( is the world's largest developer and fabless manufacturer of a class of reconfigurable hardware chips known as Field-programmable gate arrays FPGAs should not be confused with the Flip-chip pin grid array, a form of integrated circuit packaging

Products and applications

Various products and applications related to PowerPC architecture: PowerPC Implementations

Integrated circuit

Various types of Integrated Circuit (IC) related to PowerPC architecture: PowerPC/Types

See also

• PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP)
• Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP)
• Power Architecture Platform Reference (PAPR)
• Power Architecture
• PowerOpen Environment

References

External links

• Power.org
• PPC Overview - an overview of PowerPC processors
• P.A. Semi - Power to Perform
• IBM, Apple, RISC, and the roots of the Power Mac
• OS/2 Warp, PowerPC Edition review by Michal Necasek 2005
• A developer's guide to the PowerPC architecture– From IBM Developerworks.
• A history of chipmaking at IBM– From IBM Developerworks.
• Canadarm - Robotic arm (for International Space Station) with PowerPC controller created by MacDonald, Detwiller & Associates (MDA).
• PowerPC images and descriptions at cpu-collection.de
• Freescale - the creator of PowerPC CPU. Formerly Motorola Semiconductor division. Motorola Inc ( is an American, multinational Fortune 100, Telecommunications company based in Schaumburg Illinois. A semiconductor' is a Solid material that has Electrical conductivity in between a conductor and an insulator; it can vary over that
• Genesi - The creator of EFIKA, Open Desktop Workstation (ODW), Open Server Workstation (OSW), and High Density Blade Server. EFIKA is a small single board Power Architecture based computer manufactured by Genesi. The Open Desktop Workstation, also referred to as ODW is a PowerPC based computer by Austin-based Genesi.
• Global Graphics - The creator of Raster Image Processor (RIP) based on PowerPC.
• Maxwell - Radiation hardened Single Board Computer (SBC) for space and military projects.
• PowerPC FAQ
• Momentum Corp. - the creator of Maple PowerPC 970 Evaluation Board. Evaluation is systematic determination of merit worth and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards
• Printer Controller - Motorola/Freescale System-On-Chip (SOC) Printer Controller. Motorola Inc ( is an American, multinational Fortune 100, Telecommunications company based in Schaumburg Illinois. Freescale Semiconductor Inc is an American Semiconductor manufacturer
• IBM BlueGene - IBM Supercomputer with PowerPC 440 cores. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology A supercomputer is a Computer that is at the frontline of processing capacity particularly speed of calculation (at the time of its introduction The PowerPC 400 family is a line of 32-bit embedded RISC - processor cores built using Power Architecture technology
• Green Hills RTOS For PowerPC List of Green Hills RTOS For PowerPC's customers (Boeing, Ford, NASA etc). The Boeing Company is a major Aerospace and defense corporation originally founded by William E Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program
• PowerPC on Submarine US Navy use Linux PowerPC for SONAR System on their Submarine. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Sonar (which started as an Acronym for sound navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses Sound propagation (usually underwater to navigate A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability
• BlackDog Plug-in USB mobile Linux Server. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks
• Rapport - The creator of Kilocore 1025 CPU. Kilocore, from Rapport Inc and IBM, is a high-performance low-power multi-core processor with 1025 cores
• Soft3 - The creator of Samantha, a PowerPC motherboard based on AMCC 440EP System-on-chip (SOC). The PowerPC 400 family is a line of 32-bit embedded RISC - processor cores built using Power Architecture technology
• Troika - The creator of Amy '05, a PowerPC motherboard based on Tundra TSI-107 chipset and AMD Geode CS5536 chipset.
• Virginia Tech - Supercomputers based on Apple PowerMac and Xserve.
• XenPPC Xen Virtual Machine For PowerPC 970
• YARC - The creator of Raster Image Processor (RIP) based on PowerPC. In Computer science, a virtual machine (VM is a Software implementation of a machine (computer that executes programs like a real machine
• RTEMS real-time operating system
• MPC BDM at hardware-hacking.com - page about BDM (background debug mode) interface for PowerPC single-chip microcontrollers
• Yellow Dog Linux - a PPC-only Linux distro
• GNU/Linux Crux PPC - GNU/Linux Crux for PowerPC
• OpenSolaris PowerPC Community