Talk:PowerPC

Suggested updates - 2022
Some of the information in the article is out-of-date and some incomplete.


 * Freescale Semiconductors was acquired by NXP a few years ago.
 * Freescale (now NXP) also still makes 32 bit PowerPCs
 * The embedded 32-bit e500 core has 3 variants: the e500, e500v2, and e500mc; the first two have some a different floating point architecture (embedded floating point) and additional signal processing using the SPE (Signal Processing Extension), both of which use operands in the GP registers (which are 64 bits wide); the last (e500mc, for 'multi core') lacks SPE and returns to the 'classic' floating point (separate registers).
 * The 64 bit embedded architectures are named e5500 and e6500; as far as I know, there are no single-core variants offered by NXP.
 * The PowerQUICC series (eg, MPC8248) was followed by the QorIQ series of SOCs, such as the P1020 (32 bit) and T2080 (64 bit); some flavors of the e500v2 based SoCs offer the QUICC engine (CMP) along side the QorIQ peripheral set
 * A lot more embedded devices use PPC; it is used in many current Avionics subsystems, for example.

(I do a lot of embedded work related to avionics and communications, and the PPC is the preferred embedded processor for airborne applications, where safety and security are of paramount importance. ARM is gaining ground because there is more development being done on that architecture, not because it is a superior ISA.)

--Daniel.glasser (talk) 21:22, 12 February 2022 (UTC)