A family of RISC-based CPU chips developed by IBM, Apple and Motorola. PowerPC chips have been used in a wide range of applications from embedded systems to supercomputers. They were used in Apple's Power Macs up to the G5, before Apple switched to Intel processors. Various models of IBM's System i and System p computers used PowerPC chips, and Freescale Semiconductor (formerly the Motorola chip division) features the Power Architecture for embedded systems in a variety of industries.
Although mostly compatible before, starting in 2006 with Power ISA 2.03, PowerPC chips were united in a common instruction set architecture (ISA) with IBM's POWER chips. See
Power Mac,
G5,
POWER CPU,
Power Systems,
Apple-IBM Alliance and
CHRP.
Word
PowerPC Size Tran-
Model Year (bits) sistors Notes
Qor
series 2008 64 Comms
eSeries 2006 32-64 Automotive
970 2003 64 52M Mac G5
7400 1999 32 10.5M Mac G4
750 1997 32 6.4M Mac G3
740 1997 32 6.4M Mac 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