Motorola & IBM’s PowerPCOverview of

Wesley Davis

IBM’s first attempts at RISC

• PC/RT workstation– ROMP CPU

• POWER architecture

Motorola + IBM+ Apple

• Designed PowerPC architecture

• PowerOpen Environment specification

• Apple & IBM: Taligent– OS for PowerOpen spec & PowerPC– Disbanded in 1995

• Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP)

First-Generation PowerPC (G1)

• First PowerPC chip produced: 601– Apple PowerMac 6100– IBM RS/6000

• Embedded applications:– IBM 4xx, Motorola 5xx, 8xx

Second-Generation (G2)

• Desktop/Servers: 602, 603, 604, 620– 603e, 604e: first 200MHz desktop CPU– 620: 64-bit server CPU– 603q & x704: third-party G2 processors

• Embedded applications:– 5xxx, 82xxx, E603e– E603e: first 300MHz embedded CPU

Third-Generation (G3)

• Desktop/Servers: 750, 755– 750: world’s first copper-based CPU– 750FX: first 1000MHz CPU– Multiprocessing capable

• Embedded applications: 740, 745– 740: First 400MHz embedded CPU– 740: First copper-based embedded CPU

Forth-Generation (G4)

• 74xx series

• Copper-based

• Multiprocessor configurations

• AltiVec Technology / Velocity Engine– Answer to Intel’s MMX– Vector math unit on CPU– 160 new instructions for PowerPC ISA

Fifth-Generation (G5)

• PPC 8500

• 64-bit clean

• Copper-based

• Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) design

• Multiprocessor configurations

• AltiVec Technology

Apple Computer

• PowerMac– 601, 603, 604, G3, G4

• PowerBook– 601, 603, 604, G3, G4

• iMac– First series: G3– Second series: G4

• iBook– G3

BeBox

• Dual 603– 66MHz and 133MHz configurations– Custom hardware/software for MP on 603

• 603 did not natively support MP

• PC-style hardware– ISA bus, PCI bus

• Modems, network adaptors, video cards, sound

– AT-keyboard (no ADB)

Nintendo GameCube

• “Gekko”– Custom 405MHz PowerPC processor

Operating Systems

• Apple MacOS

• Microsoft Windows NT

• BeOS

• IBM AIX, OS/2

• BSD

• Linux

• Others…

Apple MacOS

• Version 7:– First to support PowerPC Macintosh

• Version 8:– New GUI, 8.5 was first to be PPC-only

• Version 9:– Further GUI improvements

• Version 10:– Rewritten OS: Darwin BSD core

Microsoft Windows NT

• NT 3.51 and 4.0

• Platform support:– Intel x86– PowerPC– DEC Alpha– MIPS

BeOS

• Designed for dual-603 BeBoxes

• Released for other PowerPC machines– Apple would not give G3 specs

• BeOS developed for x86

• Be, Inc. now out of business– Sold property and materials to Palm, Inc.

IBM

• AIX– Basis of PowerOpen spec– Ported to IBM PowerPCs and PowerMacs

• OS/2– IBM desktop OS, also for x86– Developed with Microsoft

• Basis for Windows NT

UNIX-like operating systems

• BSD– FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD

• Supports many hardware platforms

– Apple Darwin: core of MacOS X• Ported to x86

• Linux– Originally designed for x86

• Support for almost any hardware platform

– LinuxPPC, MkLinux, Linux-Mandrake PPC

Other operating systems

• QNX Neutrino

• AmigaOS

• LynxOS

• ChorusOS

• PowerMAX OS

• OS-9

Real-Time Embedded OS

• VRTX

• Nucleus

Benchmarks

• BYTEmark

• SPEC95

BYTEmark Test Results

SPEC95 Test ResultsCPU Int FP

G3/333 15.0 10.6

G3/350 15.7 11.6

G3/400 18.0 12.7

G4/400 18.8 18.1

G3/450 20.0 13.3

G3/466 20.5 12.3

G4/450 21.4 20.4

G4/500 23.5 22.7

CPU Int FP

SPARC 400 14.0 22.8

Celeron 400 15.1 10.9

Pentium3 450 18.6 13.6

Pentium3 500 20.7 14.6

Alpha 500 23.5 22.7

Pentium3 600 24.0 15.9

Alpha 525 24.1 37.0

Athlon 550 25.1 20.6

PowerPC