PowerPC

PowerPC (short for Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as "PPC") is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, also known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular as embedded and high-performance processors. As an evolving instruction set, PowerPC was renamed "Power ISA" in 2006, but lives on as a legacy trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture-based processors.

History
PowerPC was the cornerstone of AIM's PReP and Common Hardware Reference Platform initiatives in the 1990s. It is well known for being used by Apple's Power Macintosh lines from 1994 to 2006. The architecture was also used in video game consoles (such as the Apple/Bandai Pippin, Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Nintendo's GameCube, Wii, and Wii U) and embedded applications that far exceeded Apple's use.

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. PowerPC also integrates some elements of Motorola's 88110, an earlier RISC processor that Apple had investigated in a research project called Jaguar.

At the Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple would transition to Intel processors.

1st generation

 * PowerPC 601

2nd generation

 * PowerPC 603
 * PowerPC 604
 * Exponential X704 (the only processor designed outside of the AIM alliance)



3rd generation

 * PowerPC G3 (7xx)

4th generation

 * PowerPC G4 (74xx)

5th generation

 * PowerPC G5 (970)

Gallery
Starting with the PowerPC G3, Apple started using marketing names and images that did not necessarily reflect the appearance of the actual processor in the system: