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Processor Codenames
PowerPC's

By:David K. Every
©Copyright 1999


Companies are often starting multiple projects, going through some design and evaluation phase, and then picking directions between competing projects (concepts) -- and killing the other one. But politics and other things going on, and some individuals (groups) will keep projects and ideas going (and they may come back), and some good projects die due to critical people leaving, politics, or how much it would take to bring to market, and so on. So there is some bizarre evolution and rebirth and mutation of projects.

Pre-PowerPC RISC Projects

  • Jaguar - Apple's 1st RISC project, based on the Motorola 88000 RISC follow-on called:
    • 88110: MARS - the name and number for the RISC chip used.
       
  • Tesseract - PowerPC based RISC tied in with Pink OS. Totally new hardware and OS (very aggressive). When Pink (Taligent) broke off this died (and more moderate PDM survived).
      
  • Cognac (Named after John Hennessy, a pioneer in RISC technology),
    Piltdown Man or PDM - the "missing link" between 68000 Macs and Tesseract's high-end PowerPC Mac. This is the project that survived -- Apple's 68k-compatible RISC project.
     
  • I've also heard of Roman and Zorro for RISC machines, but don't know what they were tied to.

G1 - PowerPC Processors

Remember, G1 and G2 wasn't used as a name per say, until the G3 (3rd Generation) came about. They were the First and Second Generation Chips, and everyone knew that -- they just didn't call them G1 or G2.
  • PowerPC 601
    • IBM ??: 601 (50-66 MHz)
    • Motorola ??: 601+ (80 - 110 MHz - .6µm, 4LM process)

G2 - PowerPC Processors

  • PowerPC 602 - Galahad - Actually made after 603 - a stripped and tweaked 603 used for a set top game box ($600) (not pippin)
     
  • PowerPC 603 - Wart (King Arthur's trusty aide)
    • IBM ??
    • Motorola 603 ??: (66 - 80 MHz - .5µm, 4LM, HiP3)
       
  • PowerPC 603e - Stretch / 603+
    • IBM ??
    • Motorola 603e PID6: (100- 133 MHz, 0.5µm, 4LM, HiP3 process)
       
  • PowerPC 603e - Valiant / 603ev
    • IBM ??
    • Motorola 603ev PID7v: (150-240 MHz, 0.35µm, 5LM, HiP4 process)
       
    • Motorola 603et PID7t: Goldeneye (200-300 MHz, 0.29µm, 5LM, HiP4 process)
         
  • PowerPC 604 - Zephyr
    • IBM PID 9v-604e: ?? (166 - 225 MHz - .5µm, ? process)
    • Motorola 604: (100-133 MHz - .5µm, HiP3 process )
       
  • PowerPC 604e: Scirocco
    • IBM PID 9t-604e: ?? (200 - 250 MHz - .35µm, ? process)
    • Motorola 604e PID9v: (180 - 233 MHz, .35µm, 5LM, HiP4 process)
       
    • IBM PID 9q-604e: HelmWind (250 MHz - .25µm, ? process)
       
  • PowerPC 604eq: Mach5
    • IBM PID 10q-604e: (250-350 MHz - .25µm, ? process)
    • Motorola 604r PID9q: (250 - 350 MHz, .25µm, 5LM, HiP4 process):
       
    • : Twister - 604e Mach5 with integrated L2 cache [DEAD]
       
  • PowerPC 615: IBM's 604 based x86/PPC hybrid (dual cores) [DEAD]
  • PowerPC 6XX: Merlin - Somerset 603 based w/x86 emulation enhancements [DEAD]
     
  • PowerPC 620:
    • Trident - 150 MHz target.35µm process - delayed until outclassed by 604s, then retargeted with better process (Red October) [DEAD]
    • Red October - 200 MHz .25µm process - long delayed, and very specialized, but is produced in small quantities.
       
  • PowerPC 630 : Shipping as Power3
    • IBM Boxer (100+ MHz), Dino (200+ MHz)
       
  • PowerPC 640: Massively Parallel (single threaded) wide (256 bit?) EPIC like processor (without VLIW forced groupings). Required exotic (expensive) packaging, and new I/O chips, major motherboard changes and so on. [DEAD]

G3 - 613 / Arthur - as in King Arthur

  • PowerPC 740
    • IBM : (200 - 300 MHz)
    • Motorola : (200-266 MHz -.29µm HiP4)
    • Motorola : (300-400 MHz -.22µm HiP4)
       
  • PowerPC 750:
    • IBM PID 8t: (233 - 300 MHz -.25µm, 6S process)
    • IBM PID 8p: LoneStar (300 - 400 MHz - .22µm Copper, 7S + 7SF process)
    • IBM PID ??: Glacier (- 580 MHz- .18µm Copper+SOI, 8S Process)
       
    • Motorola: (200-266 MHz -.29µm HiP4)
    • Motorola: Conan (300-400 MHz -.22µm HiP4)
    • Motorola: Goldfinger (400+ MHz - .18µm, Copper HiP5+)
       
  • PowerPC 760: Typhoon - 604 class G3 (MP support, FP and core improvements) replaced by Habenero [DEAD]
  • PowerPC 770: Jalapeno - G3 with on-chip L2 [DEAD]
  • PowerPC 780: Habenero - PowerPC 640 resurected (replaced Typhoon project). Massively Parallel (single threaded) wide (256 bit) EPIC like processor (without VLIW like forced grouping) replaced (again) by more conservative Desktop98 / G4. [DEAD]

G4 - Desktop98 (Apple)

  • PowerPC Video and Multimedia Extensions:
    • IBM / somerset: VMX
    • Motorola: AltiVec
       
  • PowerPC G4: Max (300 - 450 MHz configuration) - Summer '99
    • Motorola : MinMax w/64 bit bus
    • Motorola : MaxMax w/128 bit bus
       
  • PowerPC G4: NextGen (600 - 800 MHz configuration) s- Winter '99 - 00
     

G4 (Multicore) - Desktop99 (Apple) - Usually a 4 core G4 (I think it should be called 4x4), but different numbers of cores get talked about (2 or 3). There are some other variations in targets as well -- like multiple AltiVec Units or a shared units and so on.

  • Motorola: V'Ger - after the omniscient character in Star Trek: The Movie (500+ MHz, Copper HiP6+ .15µ implementation)

G5 - Processor 2000 / Golfish - New 64 Bit Core, minor ISA changes (add predication and a few improvements)

This stuff can't be written without the help and corrections of quite a few anonymous sources. Thanks to them for their help in documenting a little trivia and history. Any help / feedback is appreciated.

Created: 08/03/98
Updated: 11/09/02

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