So PowerPC is dead you say?

[mikeymike]

It's just a little bit too big for my living room, I'll pass on this new PPC technology and happily continue use my Intel Core2Duo

http://www.characterblog.com/assets/58914-ibm-watson.jpg

I think that one transforms into a mech.

[itix]

So how comes IBM's AI machine called Watson which outsmarted the two best champions on Jeopardy TV show uses Power7 not x86 architecture?

youtube video

If only an IBM engineer was a nostalgic Amigan with a dream to out do Wintel at least technically.....

*sigh*

[AJCopland]

It's the software that is impressive anyway. It wouldn't matter what hardware they run it on.
 
There is enough cores in that machine to satisfy all the current demand from the amiga community. If PowerPC were alive then they'd have spent less money and shipped motherboards to us all for free.
 
PowerPC is even dead in the console market. The next generation is abandoning it, except for Nintendo who are just taking the Wii and doubling the cpu cores.

This goes along the order of:
1) True,
2) True and hilarious,
3) False: There's a rumour that PS4 is an AMD CPU but it's not confirmed - the XboxNext/720/wtfever is probably (almost certinaly) PPC - Wii-U is a multicore PPC but it's not based on the older GameCube/Wii cpu.

PPC these days is disappointing in it's lack of publicly consumer facing usage. There's low-end upto 400MHz integrated PPC chips that get embedded in car GPS displays, then there's an enormous gap until you get to the Power7 stuff.

Actually back to games consoles, the real loser this coming generation appears to be nVidia! They pissed off MS back on the original Xbox with licensing costs and were the primary reason it was put to bed early. They're apparently out of the PS4. They were rumoured to be in the Nintendo 3DS but they aren't, and they lost out to AMD/Ati for the Wii-U.

In the coming console generation, they make PPC seem positively bouncing with life

[AJCopland]

PowerPC in classic Amiga looks dead.
I think our Classic future (now there's a confused concept!) lies in FPGA based recreations like fpgaarcade and 68k cores like the tg68 etc.

Andy

[_ThEcRoW]

Hey, at least it's power-efficient!

[spirantho]

Just for information: the PowerPC is not at all dead, it's not even close to dead, it's still being actively pushed forward by some big companies, and is evolving all the time.

Just because PowerPC isn't used in desktops any more (apart from ours) doesn't mean it's dead - nor does that fact that it's slower than x86 mean it's dead. PowerPC isn't competing with x86 any more, it's competing with ARM. That's why our Sams and things are so power efficient, they're embedded CPUs, not designed to compete with x86 desktops (what would be the point? It'd be corporate suicide).

[takemehomegrandma]

Just because PowerPC isn't used in desktops any more

Equals to **DEAD** for all purposes interesting to us, which is what people mean when they say that PPC is dead. Nobody is denying that PPC is being used plenty in servers, routers, printers, automotive, etc. But who cares?

[bloodline]

Just for information: the PowerPC is not at all dead, it's not even close to dead, it's still being actively pushed forward by some big companies, and is evolving all the time.

Just because PowerPC isn't used in desktops any more (apart from ours) doesn't mean it's dead - nor does that fact that it's slower than x86 mean it's dead. PowerPC isn't competing with x86 any more, it's competing with ARM. That's why our Sams and things are so power efficient, they're embedded CPUs, not designed to compete with x86 desktops (what would be the point? It'd be corporate suicide).

Easy way to check if a CPU architecture is dead; Just ask yourself if you would choose it when starting a new project

[Iggy]

It's the software that is impressive anyway. It wouldn't matter what hardware they run it on.
 
There is enough cores in that machine to satisfy all the current demand from the amiga community. If PowerPC were alive then they'd have spent less money and shipped motherboards to us all for free.
 
PowerPC is even dead in the console market. The next generation is abandoning it, except for Nintendo who are just taking the Wii and doubling the cpu cores.

That last part is completely unprovable.
No one really know what the next XBOX will be based on (other then the GPU).
The PS4? Also relatively unknown, but it is quite likely to continue as an evolution of the current hardware.
And the Wii U's processor isn't really related to the Wii's processor and is several times more powerful (I'd love to have that processor in a PC).

[gertsy]

Easy way to check if a CPU architecture is dead; Just ask yourself if you would choose it when starting a new project

Or easier still, just put a heart monitor on one and see what you get.  100% nothing.
"I kicked it, it was dead"

[spirantho]

Equals to **DEAD** for all purposes interesting to us, which is what people mean when they say that PPC is dead. Nobody is denying that PPC is being used plenty in servers, routers, printers, automotive, etc. But who cares?

Not at all - all the PowerPC processors used by machines since the PowerMac are actually using embedded processors.

So PowerPC is very much alive for all purposes interesting to people who don't just want to use old PowerMacs.

[takemehomegrandma]

Not at all - all the PowerPC processors used by machines since the PowerMac are actually using embedded processors.

So PowerPC is very much alive for all purposes interesting to people who don't just want to use old PowerMacs.

:crazy:

Again, *nobody* has been building viable PPC based desktop motherboards since Apple left the scene. They were the last, and those Apple machines represents how far PPC ever went on the desktop. Nobody will follow, since there simply is no point. PPC can't do anything for the desktop that X86 (and soon ARM) can't do better (and by "better", I actually mean *every single point of comparison*)...

[commodorejohn]

PowerPC is even dead in the console market. The next generation is abandoning it, except for Nintendo who are just taking the Wii and doubling the cpu cores.

How do you figure? The Wii U is still using PowerPC, and if it sells like the Wii did you can hardly call it dead, the only rumor I've seen for the XBox 720/"Durango" posits a 16-core PowerPC system, and evidently even the Playstation 4 isn't abandoning it entirely (though why they need an entirely different CPU architecture in an x86 box with an explicit lack of backwards compatibility is beyond me.) That's a pretty curious definition of "dead."

[AJCopland]

even the Playstation 4 isn't abandoning it entirely (though why they need an entirely different CPU architecture in an x86 box with an explicit lack of backwards compatibility is beyond me.)

If they are abandoning the PPC/Cell combo, and I'd bet they are, it's because their partners pulled out of Cell development. So they're faced with either:
1) paying for a new CPU to be developed,
2) paying for further development of the Cell and marrying it to either a newer PPC core or another ISA,
3) or they can take an off the shelf CPU/Mobo/GPU and come within a few percentage either side of their competitors whilst saving a HUGE (billions dollars) amount of money.

I think they've chosen route #3 because finally someone slightly less insane is at the helm at Sony.

Nothing to do with ease/difficulty of Cell software development or anything either, I think it's purely a logical choice based on monetary needs.

Andy

[yssing]

Its Sony, they have enough money to continue with cell development.
I very much doubt they would try a completely new route, when what they have has proven to work pretty well.

[commodorejohn]

3) or they can take an off the shelf CPU/Mobo/GPU and come within a few percentage either side of their competitors whilst saving a HUGE (billions dollars) amount of money.

I think they've chosen route #3 because finally someone slightly less insane is at the helm at Sony.

Yeah, I get that, but as I've read the tentative PS4 design also includes a PowerPC CPU for some reason (not sure if it's Cell or not.) That's what I don't get, since they've explicitly stated there won't be any backwards compatibility...