From the Editor
It’s PowerPC’s 20th birthday and to celebrate we’re looking back through the photo album to relive some of the architecture’s hits and misses. From its humble beginnings, PowerPC has grown to be one of the most popular 32-bit embedded processor families around, and the future looks even brighter. Come along as we take a trip down dual-ported memory lane. We've extended the deadline for the final Journal Forum Posting competition. Post something creative and you could walk away with the final $500 amazon.com gift certificate!
Thanks as always for reading. We encourage you to share your thoughts in the new easier-to-use comments area right below the articles; don't be shy. Or you can get a lively discussion going on our FORUMS.
Jim Turley - Editor, Embedded Technology Journal
Industry News
July 30, 2010
Xilinx Showcases End Market Solutions Based on LabVIEW FPGA at NIWeek 2010
July 29, 2010
Gresham offer CompactPCI Power Supplies on Short Lead Times
Wolfson announces ultra low power audio hub solution for portable digital audio applications
LPI Launches Enterprise-level "Virtualization" Exam
July 28, 2010
Virage Logic's New ARC® Sound AS221BD Dual-Core Processor Targets Blu-ray Audio
2 GB RAM on compact Qseven modules
Virage Logic Expands Semiconductor IP Portfolio with Silicon-Proven SiANA™ Analog IP Offering
USB Compatible High Efficiency Power Manager and Charger for 1-Cell Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries
July 27, 2010
3D Design Software Speeds Response Time For RF Connector Specialist
Wolfson’s world-leading audio devices selected for LG mobile phones
QuickLogic Announces Innovative Framebuffer Solution to Extend Battery Life of Consumer Devices
Feature Articles
PowerPC: Twenty Years of Progress
They say power corrupts, but nobody told embedded-systems designers. The PowerPC processor family turns 20 years old this year, and it’s come a very long way from its beginnings in the first Power Macintosh in 1990. Today’s PowerPC has done a 180-degree turnaround: it’s no longer in Macs or any other desktop computers, but it’s going strong in embedded applications, especially networking and consumer electronics. PowerPCs are found in everything from spacecraft to Cisco routers to Ford and Jaguar engines to video games, including the “big three” of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii.
Depending on how you count, PowerPC is the third most popular 32-bit embedded processor family, after ARM and MIPS. ARM seems to get all the glory, while MIPS and PowerPC mostly keep under the radar. Interestingly, all three were originally designed for computer systems, not embedded applications, yet it’s in embedded products that they’ve been most successful. There are no ARM- or MIPS-based computers anymore (unless you count tablets or netbooks), yet PowerPC processors still drive record-breaking supercomputers. Of all the RISC architectures, PowerPC has stayed truest to its roots, and it offers the broadest spectrum of performance from top to bottom. Read More
PowerPC Architecture
At present mostly analog sensors
Low-Power ARM
New Whitepaper - Platform Software Optimization for Multi-Core Architecture Processors
Transitioning from single core to multi-core can certainly be a difficult design challenge. If you are looking to move on over to multi-core in your next design, you should check out this new [url=http://www.techfocusmedia.net/embedded...