Apple announced the transition in 2005 but began using Intel chips in 2006, but still, PowerPC is best known as the chips that powered Macs for a little over a decade.
I’m not the person you responded to — I actually did not know that the Wii U used PowerPC. I did know that the Xbox 360 did and have made that argument.
It’s a big egregious to call it a Mac (though I do, mostly in jest), but, that is the connection.
Of note, the PowerPC chips were made by IBM (and Motorola according to the article I linked — I did not know that before). So, a former Apple competitor. And now (since mid-2020) Apple competes with Intel, which they switched to from PowerPC. So, bit of a tangent at this point, but these rivalries we have as users are partnerships that come and go in the business world.
I’m confused by your first sentence - the last machines they made that used PPC were in 2005. To me it reads like you’re correcting me but saying exactly the same thing..?
The fact that Macs stopped using the architecture twenty years ago makes it bit of an odd connection, I would argue. As you say, the 360 used the architecture far more recently and over 84 million of those were sold. It’s not like it was some obscure device.
The main reason I used the comparison is because no PC analog outside of Apple’s space (Unless you count Linux on PowerPC?) used the architecture. x86 has a strong association with Windows, PC gaming, and “PCs” as a whole, while PowerPC’s most iconic use in the personal computing space was in consoles and in Apple’s lineup. Because of that, I chose to mention the PowerPC Mac line.
But the Switch and beyond use ARM, the architecture Macs have used for the last five years?
It just seemed an odd thing to mention given how long it’s been since Macs used PPC. I know they used to, but I’m old enough to have used 68000k Macs too so of course I remember that time.
When I think of portable ARM devices, my mind immediately snaps to cell phones and the Android ecosystem (which is what the Switch was compared to and even successfully hacked to run Android on).
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Just for clarification the Wii, Wii U, 360, and PS3 all used the Cell Broadband Engine which is a PowerPC derivative. The original PowerPC was made by the AIM Alliance which stands for Apple, IBM, Motorola. Apple and Motorola had a long history of collaboration as all Apple machines had used Motorola processors up to that point.