ppc64 is an identifier commonly used within the Linux,

GNU Compiler Collection The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free softwa ...

(GCC) and

LLVM LLVM is a set of compiler and toolchain technologies that can be used to develop a front end for any programming language and a back end for any instruction set architecture. LLVM is designed around a language-independent intermediate represe ...

open-source software communities to refer to the target

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

for applications optimized for

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A comput ...

big-endian In computing, endianness, also known as byte sex, is the order or sequence of bytes of a word of digital data in computer memory. Endianness is primarily expressed as big-endian (BE) or little-endian (LE). A big-endian system stores the most si ...

PowerPC and

Power ISA Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power ISA ...

processors. ppc64le is a pure

little-endian In computing, endianness, also known as byte sex, is the order or sequence of bytes of a word of digital data in computer memory. Endianness is primarily expressed as big-endian (BE) or little-endian (LE). A big-endian system stores the most sig ...

mode that has been introduced with the POWER8 as the prime target for technologies provided by the

OpenPOWER Foundation The OpenPOWER Foundation is a collaboration around Power ISA-based products initiated by IBM and announced as the "OpenPOWER Consortium" on August 6, 2013. IBM is opening up technology surrounding their Power Architecture offerings, such as proc ...

, aiming at enabling porting of the x86 Linux-based software with minimal effort.

Details

These two identifiers are frequently used when compiling source code to identify the target architecture. 64-bit Power and PowerPC processors are the following: *

PowerPC 620 PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple– IBM– ...

* RS64 – Apache, RS64-II Northstar, RS64-III Pulsar/IStar, and RS64-IV SStar *

POWER3 The POWER3 is a microprocessor, designed and exclusively manufactured by IBM, that implemented the 64-bit version of the PowerPC instruction set architecture (ISA), including all of the optional instructions of the ISA (at the time) such as ...

and POWER3-II *

POWER4 The POWER4 is a microprocessor developed by International Business Machines (IBM) that implemented the 64-bit PowerPC and PowerPC AS instruction set architectures. Released in 2001, the POWER4 succeeded the POWER3 and RS64 microprocessors, e ...

and POWER4+ * PowerPC 970, 970FX, 970MP and 970GX * POWER5 and POWER5+ * PPE in Cell BE, PowerXCell 8i and Xenon. * PWRficient * POWER6 and POWER6+ * POWER7 and POWER7+ * A2, A2I (used in the Blue Gene/Q) and A2O * PowerPC e5500 core based * PowerPC e6500 core based * POWER8 – P8-6c Murano, P8-12c Turismo and Venice, P8E (with NVLink) and CP1 * POWER9 – P9C Cumulus, P9N Nimbus and P9 AIO Axone * Power10 * Microwatt, open source soft core * Chiselwatt, open source soft core Defunct 64-bit PowerPC processors are the Motorola G5 and PowerPC e700.

References

External links

* {{webarchive , url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20110729095144/https://www.power.org/ , title=Power.org , date=2011-07-29
Linux Standard Base Specification for the PPC64 Architecture 2.1
2003 Computer-related introductions in 1997 64-bit computers PowerPC microprocessors Instruction set architectures Power microprocessors IBM microprocessors