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| POWER, PowerPC, and Power ISA architectures |
|---|
| NXP (formerly Freescale and Motorola) |
| IBM |
|
| IBM/Nintendo |
| Other |
| Related links |
| Cancelled in gray, historic in italic |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 2005 |
| Discontinued | Present |
| Marketed by | IBM, Sony, Microsoft |
| Designed by | IBM |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Performance | |
| Max. CPU clock rate | 2.8 GHz to 3.2 GHz |
| Cache | |
| L1 cache | 32 KB instruction + 32 KB data |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Gaming Console, HPC |
| Technology node | 90 nm to 45 nm |
| Microarchitecture | PPU |
| Instruction set | PowerPC 2.02 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Cores |
|
| GPUs | Xenos, in the XCGPU variant. |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant | |
| History | |
| Successor | IBM A2 |
The Power Processing Element (PPE) comprises a Power Processing Unit (PPU) and a 512 KB L2 cache. In most instances the PPU is used in a PPE. The PPU is a 64-bit dual-threaded in-order PowerPC 2.02 microprocessor core designed by IBM for use primarily in the game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but has also found applications in high performance computing in supercomputers such as the record setting IBM Roadrunner.
The PPU is used as a main CPU core in three different processor designs:
- The Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) which is used primarily in Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console. It uses the PPE and comes in three versions, a 90 nm, a 65 nm and a 45 nm part.
- The PowerXCell 8i which is a version of the Cell BE with enhanced FPU and memory subsystem. It was only manufactured as a single 65 nm version.
- The XCPU which is used in a three-core configuration and a unified 1 MB L2 cache inside Microsoft's Xbox 360. It comes in three versions, the 90 nm and 65 nm versions, and the 45 nm XCGPU with an integrated graphics processor from ATI.