ppc64 is an identifier commonly used within the

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

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 sof ...

(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 repre ...

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Ope ...

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 comp ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

mode that has been introduced with the

POWER8 POWER8 is a family of superscalar multi-core microprocessors based on the Power ISA, announced in August 2013 at the Hot Chips conference. The designs are available for licensing under the OpenPOWER Foundation, which is the first time for ...

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 In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

to identify the target architecture. 64-bit Power and PowerPC processors are the following: * PowerPC 620 *

RS64 The IBM RS64 is a family of microprocessors used in IBM's RS/6000 and AS/400 servers in the late 1990s. These microprocessors implement the "Amazon", or "PowerPC-AS", instruction set architecture (ISA). Amazon is a superset of the PowerPC ins ...

– Apache, RS64-II Northstar, RS64-III Pulsar/IStar, and RS64-IV SStar * POWER3 and POWER3-II * POWER4 and POWER4+ * PowerPC 970, 970FX, 970MP and 970GX * POWER5 and POWER5+ * PPE in Cell BE, PowerXCell 8i and

Xenon Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...

. * PWRficient * POWER6 and POWER6+ * POWER7 and POWER7+ * A2, A2I (used in the Blue Gene/Q) and A2O * PowerPC e5500 core based *

PowerPC e6500 The PowerPC e6500 is a multithreaded 64-bit Power ISA-based microprocessor core from Freescale Semiconductor (now part of NXP). e6500 will power the entire range of QorIQ AMP Series system on a chip (SoC) processors which share the common na ...

core based *

– P8-6c Murano, P8-12c Turismo and Venice, P8E (with NVLink) and CP1 *

POWER9 POWER9 is a family of superscalar, multithreading, multi-core microprocessors produced by IBM, based on the Power ISA. It was announced in August 2016. The POWER9-based processors are being manufactured using a 14 nm FinFET process ...

– P9C Cumulus, P9N Nimbus and P9 AIO Axone * Power10 * Microwatt,

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

soft core * Chiselwatt,

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