Re:P.A. Semi PA6T PowerPC
by lproven on Monday June 06, 2022 @08:10AM
(#31639447)
Kinda sorta.
IBM made POWER for its own RISC workstations and servers: originally the RT/PC, later RS/6000, now IBM p Series.
Not mainframes, which have a different CPU architecture altogether.
Part of Apple's insight was that laptops were at that time (i.e. 2006-2008) becoming more important than desktops. It had G5 desktops but only G4 laptops.
IBM said it wasn't going to be doing any laptop chips, and that was a factor pushing Apple away from PowerPC. PA Semi could have been an alternative path, though.
IBM made POWER for its own RISC workstations and servers: originally the RT/PC, later RS/6000, now IBM p Series.
Not mainframes, which have a different CPU architecture altogether.
Part of Apple's insight was that laptops were at that time (i.e. 2006-2008) becoming more important than desktops. It had G5 desktops but only G4 laptops.
IBM said it wasn't going to be doing any laptop chips, and that was a factor pushing Apple away from PowerPC. PA Semi could have been an alternative path, though.