I am curious, regardless of business viability or number that can be sold or whether its some obscure thing, is powerpc technically competent to be a desktop processor? What is suitable, and what details are not?
Every CPU can be used as a desktop processor, even 6502 was used on a desktop. MPC5200B was designed for automotive industry but can run OWB and GCC very well in full HD resolution on my new 27" TFT.
What powerpc is lacking as a desktop processor is lack of inexpensive multicore G4 class processors. POWER7 is way too expensive while AMCC's processors are slow and dated. Freescale is probably the best source for powerpc desktop processors (i.e. e6500 core looks nice), too bad that nobody is building desktop computers from their processors.