A family of RISC-based CPU chips developed by IBM, Apple and Motorola. The PowerPC, known as the "Power Architecture," is governed by Power.org and dates back to the first IBM POWER CPU in the RS/6000 in 1990. For more information, visit www.power.org.
PowerPC chips have been used in a wide range of computing devices from handheld machines to supercomputers. The chips were used in Apple's Power Mac line up to and including the G5, which was the last Mac model before Apple switched to Intel x86-based processors. Various models of IBM's System i (iSeries) and System p (pSeries) used PowerPC chips, and Freescale Semiconductor, formerly Motorola's chip division, has featured PowerPC chips for automotive powertrain control.
Although mostly compatible, starting in 2006 with Power ISA 2.03, the PowerPC and POWER chips were united into a common instruction set architecture (ISA). See Power Mac, POWER, Power Systems, Apple-IBM Alliance and CHRP.
Word
PowerPC Year Size # of Macintosh
Model Intro. (bits) Trans. Models
970 2003 64 52M G5
7400 1999 32 10.5M G4
750 1997 32 6.4M G3
740 1997 32 6.4M G3
604e 1996 32 5.1M
603e** 1996 32 2.6M
603 1995 32 1.6M
604 1995 32 3.6M
602** 1995 32 1M
601 1993 32 2.8M
** low power for laptops
|
