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The following is a list of PowerPC processors.
32-bit and 64-bit PowerPC processors have been a favorite of embedded computer designers. To keep costs low on high-volume competitive products, the CPU core is usually bundled into a system-on-chip (SOC) integrated circuit. SOCs contain the processor core, cache and the processor's local data on-chip, along with clocking, timers, memory (SDRAM), peripheral (network, serial I/O), and bus (PCI, PCI-X, ROM/Flash bus, I2C) controllers. IBM also offers an open bus architecture (called CoreConnect) to facilitate connection of the processor core to memory and peripherals in a SOC design. IBM and Motorola have competed along parallel development lines in overlapping markets. A later development was the Book E PowerPC Specification, implemented by both IBM and Freescale Semiconductor, which defines embedded extensions to the PowerPC programming model.
Northbridge or host bridge for PowerPC CPU is an Integrated Circuit (IC) for interfacing PowerPC CPU with memory, and Southbridge IC. Some Northbridge also provide interface for Accelerated Graphics Ports (AGP) bus, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI-X, PCI Express, or Hypertransport bus. Specific Northbridge IC must be used for PowerPC CPU. It is impossible to use Northbridge for Intel or AMD x86 CPU with PowerPC CPU. However it is possible to use certain types of x86 Southbridge in PowerPC based motherboards. Example: VIA 686B and AMD Geode CS5536.
Apple used their own type of northbridges which were custom ASICs manufactured by VLSI(later Philips),Texas Instruments and Lucent (later agere systems)
List of Northbridge for PowerPC:
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