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powerpc

powerpc

 

  1  definition  found 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  PowerPC 
 
    (PPC)  A  {RISC}  {microprocessor}  designed 
  to  meet  a  {standard}  which  was  jointly  designed  by  {Motorola}, 
  {IBM},  and  {Apple  Computer}  (the  PowerPC  Alliance).  The 
  PowerPC  standard  specifies  a  common  {instruction  set 
  architecture}  (ISA),  allowing  anyone  to  design  and  fabricate 
  PowerPC  processors,  which  will  run  the  same  code.  The  PowerPC 
  architecture  is  based  on  the  IBM  {POWER}  architecture,  used  in 
  IBM's  {RS/6000}  {workstation}s.  Currently  {IBM}  and 
  {Motorola}  are  working  on  PowerPC  chips. 
 
  The  PowerPC  standard  specifies  both  32-bit  and  64-bit  data 
  paths.  Early  implementations  were  32-bit  (e.g.  {PowerPC 
  601});  later  higher-performance  implementations  were  64-bit 
  (e.g.  PowerPC  620).  A  PowerPC  has  32  integer  {registers}  (32- 
  or  64  bit)  and  32  {floating-point}  (IEEE  standard  64  bit) 
  {floating-point}  registers. 
 
  The  POWER  CPU  chip  and  PowerPC  have  a  large  common  core,  but 
  both  have  instructions  that  the  other  doesn't.  The  PowerPC 
  offers  the  following  features  that  POWER  does  not: 
 
  Support  for  running  in  {little-endian}  mode. 
 
  Addition  of  single  precision  {floating-point}  operations. 
 
  Control  of  branch  prediction  direction. 
 
  A  hardware  coherency  model  (not  in  Book  I). 
 
  Some  other  {floating-point}  instructions  (some  optional). 
 
  The  real  time  clock  (upper  and  lower)  was  replaced  with  the 
  time  base  registers  (upper  and  lower),  which  don't  count  in 
  sec/ns  (the  decrementer  also  changed). 
 
  64-bit  instruction  operands,  registers,  etc  (in  64  bit 
  processors). 
 
  See  also  {PowerOpen},  {PowerPC  Platform}  (PReP). 
 
  {IBM  PPC  info 
  (http://fnctsrv0.chips.ibm.com/products/ppc/index.html)}. 
 
  {(gopher://info.hed.apple.com/)},  "Apple  Corporate  News/" 
  (press  releases),  "Apple  Technologies/"  and  "Product 
  Information/".  {(gopher://ike.engr.washington.edu/)},  "IBM 
  General  News/",  "IBM  Product  Announcements/",  "IBM  Detailed 
  Product  Announcements/",  "IBM  Hardware  Catalog/". 
 
  {Usenet}  newsgroups:  {news:comp.sys.powerpc}, 
  {news:comp.sys.mac.hardware}. 
 
  ["Microprocessor  Report",  16  October  1991]. 
 
  (1994-09-30)