What Does PowerPC Mean?
The PowerPC is a CPU architecture based on reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) that was created by Apple, IBM and Motorola in 1991. The three companies formed an alliance known as AIM. The term PowerPC stands for performance optimization with enhanced RISC, otherwise known as performance computing.
PowerPC is also an evolving instruction set that has been renamed Power ISA since 2006 and lives on as a legacy architecture. PowerPC CPUs have been popularized in part by Apple due to their use in 1994-2006 workstation Macs, before Apple embraced Intel CPUs. However, the PowerPC was first used in IBM RS/6000 workstations, which ran a Unix-based operating system.