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Motorola PowerPC 603, XPC603EFE117MJ
Motorola PowerPC 603, XPC603PRX166LC
Motorola PowerPC 603, XPC603RRX200LC
Motorola PowerPC 603, XPC603PRX200LE
Motorola PowerPC 603, XPC603PRX240LD
Motorola PowerPC 603, XPC603RRX250LC
Motorola PowerPC 604e, XPC604ERX166PD
Motorola PowerPC 604e, XPC604ERX200PE
Motorola PowerPC 604e, XPC604RRX300QB
Motorola PowerPC 740 (G3), XPC740PRX300LE
Motorola PowerPC 750 (G3), XPC750ARX233PE
Motorola PowerPC 750 (G3), XPC750ARX233PE (variant)
Motorola PowerPC 750 (G3), XPC750ARX266PE
Motorola PowerPC 750 (G3), XPC750ARX266PE (variant)
Motorola PowerPC 750 (G3), XPC750PRX300PB
Motorola PowerPC 750 (G3), XPC750PRX300RB
Motorola PowerPC 7400 (G4), XPC7400 RX400TK
Motorola PowerPC 7410 (G4), MPC7410 HX500LE
Motorola PowerPC 860, XPC860MHZP50C1
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» Motorola overview
» all PowerPC chips
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The PowerPC Processor
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PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance (AIM).
'Power' (Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC) and was adopted from IBM's POWER architecture from their RS/6000 series.
The PowerPC is designed along RISC principles, and allows for a superscalar implementation. Versions of the design exist in both 32-bit and 64-bit implementations. Starting with the basic POWER specification, the PowerPC added:
- big or little-endian modes (requiring a reset)
- single-precision floating point in addition to double-precision
- 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, which are emulated in microcode
The first single-chip implementation of the design was the MCP601 and released in Apple's PowerMac in March 1994.
For a list of Apple computers using a specific PowerPC CPU please refer to Apple-History.com
PowerPC on Wikipedia |
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Codenamed "Arthur", the PowerPC G3 name comes from the third generation of PowerPC microprocessor. It was used in Apple Macintosh computers such as
the PowerBook G3,
the iMacs,
iBooks and several desktops, including
the Power Macintosh G3s.
The G3 was introduced in two different versions, derived from the PPC 603 series of microprocessors: the PPC 740 and PPC 750 microprocessors.
The PPC 740 slightly outperformed Pentium IIs while consuming less than 20% of the amount of power and size. Derived from the PPC 740, the PPC 750
had a faster way to access L2 cache, which allowed higher performance.
The earlier versions, made by Motorola, used an aluminium process for fabrication, and were limited to 400 MHz speeds. Later versions,
manufactured by IBM with a "silicon-on-insulator" fabrication process, achieved speeds of 500 MHz and beyond. All G3 versions did not completely
implement a standard for symmetric multiprocessing computers, which made design and manufacture of a SMP computer comparatively difficult.
The PowerPC G4 corrected this deficiency.
With its combination of small size and low power requirements, the G3 proved an ideal laptop microprocessor in its era. Apple ceased using the G3 on October 22, 2003.
References:
Motorola MPC 740 Docs
Motorola MPC 750 Docs
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The fourth generation of PowerPC processors, the PPC G4, is used in Apple Macintosh computers such as
the G4 PowerBook,
the 2nd generation "Flat Panel" iMac,
the eMac,
the 3rd generation iBook, and
the desktop G4 Power Mac.
Most of the G4 design was done by Motorola in close cooperation with Apple. IBM, the third member of the AIM alliance, chose not to participate
in the design of the G4 in part owing to microprocessor design disagreements concerning a Vector Processing Unit on the chip. Ultimately,
the G4 architecture design contained a 128-bit vector processing unit called AltiVec.
With the AltiVec unit, the G4 microprocessor can do four-way single precision floating point math, or 16-way byte math in a single cycle.
Furthermore, the vector processing unit on the G4 is superscalar, and can do two vector operations at the same time. Compared to Intel's x86
microprocessors at the time, this feature offered a substantial performance boost, if the application was coded to take advantage of the AltiVec unit.
References:
Motorola MPC 7400 Hardware Specs
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PowerQUICC Integrated Communications Processor
The MPC860 PowerQUICC is a versatile one-chip integrated microprocessor and
peripheral combination that can be used in a variety of controller applications,
excelling particularly in communications and networking products.
References:
Motorola MPC 860 Fact Sheet
Motorola MPC 860 Docs
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The PowerPC 603 was followed by the 603e, adding 16KB of L1 cache to some models, and the 603ev which shrunk the manufacturing process from .5 microns to .35 microns on some models, allowing it to be clocked even higher.
References:
Motorola MPC 603/603e User's Manual Motorola MPC 603 Doc Archive