Perseverance rover uses same PowerPC chipset found in 1998 G3 iMac

Re:Perseverance rover uses same PowerPC chipset found in 199... by wtallis on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @02:34PM (#26319428)

If we compare the RAD750 against the 5nm Apple A1, the newer chip has about 1660 times as many transistors per mm^2. Minimum feature size (ie. line widths) may not have kept pace with the nanometer-based fab node names, but transistor sizes definitely have.

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Re:Perseverance rover uses same PowerPC chipset found in 199... by mlyle on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @04:44PM (#26321304)

Eh. Don't compare the RAD 750. It's better to compare something that's not domain specific and rad hard.

Compare the PPC 740, which was ~300,000 transistors/mm^2 at 260nm. Apple M1 is ~130,000,000 transistors/mm^2 at 5nm. (260/5)^2 =~ 2700x, but the actual difference is ~430x.

So it's not as bad as line widths, but it still isn't quite keeping pace.

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