PowerPC Implementations

Microprocessors belonging to the PowerPC architecture family have been used in numerous applications.

Desktop Computers

Apple Computer was the dominant player in the market of desktop computers based on PowerPC processors until 2006 when it switched to Intel-based processors. Apple used PowerPC processors in the Power Mac, iMac, eMac, PowerBook, iBook, Mac mini, and Xserve. Classic Macintosh accelerator boards using PowerPCs were made by DayStar Digital, Newer Technology, Sonnet Technologies, and TotalImpact.

There have been several attempts to create PowerPC reference platforms for desktop computers by IBM and others: The IBM PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) is a system standard intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies; IBM POP (PowerPC Open Platform) is an open and free standard and design of PowerPC motherboards. Pegasos Open Desktop Workstation (ODW) is an open and free standard and design of PowerPC motherboards based on Marvell Discovery II (MV64361) chipset; PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel, and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run OS/2, AIX, Solaris, Taligent, and Windows NT; and the CHRP (Common Hardware Reference Platform) is an open platform agreed on by Apple, IBM, and Motorola. All CHRP systems will be able to run Mac OS, OS/2-PPC, Windows NT, AIX, Solaris, Novell Netware. CHRP is a superset of PReP and the PowerMac platforms.

Power.org has Power Architecture Platform Reference, PAPR, that provides the foundation for development of Power Architecture computers based on the Linux operating system.

List of desktop computers based on PowerPC:

* Amiga
** Eyetech AmigaOne
** Eyetech MicroA1
* Amiga "Classic" accelerator boards:
** ACK Control PowerVixxen LT.
** Phase5 BlizzardPPC.
** Phase5 CyberStormPPC.
* Apple
** iMac
** PowerMac
* Genesi
** Pegasos Open Desktop Workstation (ODW).
** EFIKA
* IBM
** RS/6000 AIX workstations
* Soft3 SAM440EP (Samantha) PowerPC board based on AMCC 440EP System-on-chip (SOC) from Italy.
* Troika Amy'05 PowerPC motherboard based on Tundra TSI-107 chipset and AMD Geode CS5536 chipset.

ervers

*Apple
**Xserve Rack server.
*Genesi
**Open Server Workstation (OSW) with dual IBM PowerPC 970MP CPU.
**High density blade server (rack server).
*IBM
**Rack server.

upercomputers

IBM
*BlueGene/L Supercomputer. On each processing node, there are two PowerPC 440 cores (700 MHz). Currently the fastest supercomputer: DOE/NNSA/LLNL Machine: IBM BlueGene/L. CPU: 131,072 PowerPC 440 (700 MHz). Main Memory: 32768 GB. Rmax: 280.6 Teraflops.
*System p with POWER5 processors are used as the base for many supercomputers as they are made to scale well and have powerful CPUs.
*MareNostrum was the fastest supercomputer in Europe, built using PowerPC 970 based blade servers.
*Roadrunner is a new Cell/Opteron based supercomputer that will be operational in 2008, pushing the 1 PetaFLOPS mark.Apple
* System X of Virginia Tech is a supercomputer based on 1100 Xserves (PowerPC 970) running Mac OS X. First built using stock PowerMac G5s making it one of the cheapest and most powerful supercomputer in its day.Cray
*The XT3, XT4 and XT5 supercomputers have Opteron CPUs but PowerPC 440 based SeaStar communications processors connecting the CPUs to a very high bandwidth communications grid.Sony
*The PlayStation 3 is the base of Cell based supercomputer grids running Yellow Dog Linux.

Personal digital assistants

IBM released a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) reference platform ("Arctic") based on PowerPC 405LP (Low Power). This project is discontinued after IBM sold PowerPC 4XX design to AMCC.

Game consoles

All three major seventh-generation game consoles contain PowerPC-based processors. Sony's PlayStation 3 console, released in November 2006, contains a Cell processor, including a 3.2 GHz PowerPC control processor and eight closely threaded DSP-like accelerator processors, seven active and one spare; Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, released in 2005, includes a 3.2 GHz custom IBM PowerPC chip with three symmetrical cores, each core SMP-capable at two threads, and Nintendo's Wii console, also released in November 2006, contains an extension of the PowerPC architecture found in their previous system, the GameCube.

TV Set Top Boxes/Digital Recorder

IBM, Sony, and Zarlink Semiconductor had released several Set Top Box (STB) reference platforms based on IBM PowerPC 405 cores and IBM Set Top Box (STB) System-On-Chip (SOC)

* Sony Set top box (STB).
* Motorola Set top box.
* Culturecom Set top box, DVD Station
* Dreambox Set Top Box.
* TiVo (Series1) personal TV/video digital recorder (VDR).
* DGStation Set top box.

Printers/Graphics

* Global Graphics, YARC Raster Image Processing (RIP) system for professional printers.
* Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, Konica-Minolta, Lexmark, Xerox laser and inkjet printers.

Network/USB Devices

* Buffalo Technology
** Kuro Box/LinkStation/TeraStation network-attached storage devices
* Cisco routers
* Culturecom - VoIP in China.
* Realm Systems
** BlackDog Plug-in USB mobile Linux Server

Automotive

* Ford, Daimler Benz cars and other car manufacturers.

Medical Equipments

* Horatio - patient simulator for training doctor and nurse.
* Matrox image processing subsystem for medical equipment: MRI, CAT, PET, USG

Military and Aerospace

* The RAD6000 and RAD750 (234A510, 234A511, 244A325) radiation-hardened processors, used in several spacecraft. The RAD6000 was developed by IBM Federal Systems, now a part of BAE Systems, and the RAD750 is the successor. The RAD6000 was used on several Mars rovers and other important spacecraft.
* Maxwell radiation hardened Single Board Computer (SBC) for space and military projects.
* U.S. Navy submarine sonar systems. [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7789]
* Canadarm for International Space Station (ISS) created by MacDonald, Detwiller & Associates (MDA).
* Leclerc main battle tank fire contol [http://www.industrie.gouv.fr/biblioth/docu/kiosque/cahiers/pdf/c0028.pdf]

Point of Sales

*Culturecom - Tax Point of Sales terminal in China.