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The history of the PowerPC begins with IBM's POWER architecture, introduced with the RISC System/6000 in early 1990. The design was inspired by earlier RISC processors such as IBM 801 and the MIPS architecture. The original POWER microprocessor, one of the first superscalar RISC implementations, was a high performance, multi-chip design. IBM soon realized that they would need a single-chip microprocessor to scale their RS/6000 line from lower-end to high-end machines, and work on a single-chip POWER microprocessor began. In early 1991 IBM realized that their design could potentially become a high-volume microprocessor used across the industry.
IBM approached Motorola 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, joined the discussions. This three-way collaboration became known as AIM, for Apple, IBM, Motorola.
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 88000The 88000 m88k for short) is a microprocessor design produced by Motorola. It was their attempt at a home-grown RISC (now often referred to as a load-store architecture, started in the 1980s. Originally called the 78000 as a homage to their famed 68000 se which was doing poorly in the market. One oft-quoted reason for its failure was the lack of backward compatibility with their own famous 68000The Motorola 68000 is a CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. The entire series was often referred to as the m68k or simply 68k History Originally, the MC6 series, also used in the Apple MacintoshMacintosh now known simply as Mac in all official capacities, is a family of personal computers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, California, USA. Named after the McIntosh, a type of apple favoured by Jef Raskin, the Macintosh was launche.
However, the 88000 was already in production, and Apple (among others) already had machines running on it. If the new POWER single-chip solution could be made somewhat comparable at a hardware level with the 88000, that would allow both Apple and Motorola to bring machines to market much faster.
The result of these various requirements was the PowerPC (Performance Computing) specification. Everyone seems to have won:
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:
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