PowerPC is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. PowerPC, as an evolving instruction set, has been named Power ISA since 2006, while the old name lives on as a trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture–based processors.
IBM PowerPC 601 microprocessor
IBM PowerPC 604e 200 MHz
The Freescale XPC855T Service Processor of a Sun Fire V20z
Reduced instruction set computer
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set computer (CISC), a RISC computer might require more instructions in order to accomplish a task because the individual instructions are written in simpler code. The goal is to offset the need to process more instructions by increasing the speed of each instruction, in particular by implementing an instruction pipeline, which may be simpler to achieve given simpler instructions.
The Sun Microsystems UltraSPARC processor is a type of RISC microprocessor.
An IBM PowerPC 601 RISC microprocessor
RISC-V prototype chip (2013)