The PowerPC Architecture: A Specification for a New Family of RISC Processors [Hardcover]

Ed Sikha (Author), Rick Simpson (Author), Cathy May (Author, Editor), Hank Warren (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1994

This is the official technical description of the PowerPC architecture and its hardware conventions, developed jointly by IBM, Motorola, and Apple. The book is an essential reference for hardware and system-software designers and applications programmers developing a range of products using implementations of the PowerPC family of microprocessors-from palmtops to teraFLOPS. The PowerPC architecture provides a stable base for software, allowing applications that run on one PowerPC processor to run consistently on any other PowerPC processor. In addition, well-designed operating systems can be moved from one processor implementation to another by making only a few minor changes. To achieve this, the specification of the architecture has been structured into three Books, corresponding to a distinct level of the architecture: Book I, User Instruction Set Architecture, describes the registers, instructions, storage model, and execution model that are available to all application programs. Book II, Virtual Environment Architecture, describes features of the architecture that permit application programs to create or modify code, to share data among programs in a multiprocessing system, and to optimize the performance of storage accesses. Book III, Operating Environment Architecture, describes features of the architecture that permit operating systems to allocate and manage storage, to handle errors encountered by application programs, to support I/O devices, and to provide the other services expected of secure, modern multiprocessor operating systems. An important feature of these specifications is that they only constrain implementations on matters that affect software compatibility. Even more significant, they specify the architecture in a manner that is independent of implementation. The PowerPC Architecture is a must for anyone who needs to understand the levels of compatibility between different processors in the PowerPC family-the 601 microprocessor, the 603 (low-end, battery-powered requirements), 604 (optimized price/performance for scaleable symmetric multiprocessors), and the 620 (for high-end technical and commercial requirements about performance).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 518 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Pub; 2 edition (June 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558603166
• ISBN-13: 978-1558603165
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,659,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your time and money, folks, February 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The PowerPC Architecture: A Specification for a New Family of RISC Processors (Hardcover)

This book is NOT a design tool. It's not much of anything, as a matter of fact. It resembles a dumbed-down PowerPC data book, and is marginally easier to read, but it contains much less useful information. The text lacks sufficient detail to be implementation oriented. It focuses far too much on programming basics to be considered design oriented. I think perhaps it was intended to serve as an introductory manual for people who don't know how to read data books.

If you're thinking of using this tool in a classroom setting, please don't. There is little or no information in it that can't be obtained FREE by downloading the PowerPC "Programming Environments" data book and the specific data book for your particular processor directly from Motorola.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good material, August 29, 2000

By 

"ishikyo" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The PowerPC Architecture: A Specification for a New Family of RISC Processors (Hardcover)

I read the review from the other reader and I want to give justice to this book. If the person who bought this book is disappointed because s/he was hoping to get something else instead, it has nothing to do with the quality of the current material. A lot of not so positive reviews I read here fall in the same "erroneously bought" critic syndrom. Regarding this book, this is really excellent if you want to go deeper than simply reading the manufacturer's user and programming manuals. I work daily on PowerPC computers implementing low level OS routines and this book does a great job at helping me on using specific instructions. In fact, this material added to the (free) manufacturer manuals and Gary Kacmarcik's book is all one need to work intimately on this wonderful CPU. If you need something at a more generic level, buy J. Hennessey's book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to the PowerPC Architecture, September 14, 2010

By 

Code Monkey - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The PowerPC Architecture: A Specification for a New Family of RISC Processors (Hardcover)

I would usually not have a written a review for this book, but was taken aback by it's very poor rating. It turned out that this was because of one very poor review which I feel did not do justice to the book, and so I felt compelled to add my opinion.

While many (free) manufacturer supplied data books for various PowerPC implementations have become available since this book was published this is the only PowerPC book that still remains on my shelf. I no longer work on this architecture, but I've found it impossible to give my copy of book away (yes, all the data books are long gone). I find this an excellent introduction to the PowerPC family of processors, and if there are facts about the architecture I need to look up I have always found it here. So, if you don't need a shelf full of data books, and are ready to pay for one hardcover that is almost always good enough, go out and get this one. It's not going to tell you about proprietary implementation details about a specific chip, but if you need to look up something about the PowerPC this should be a great reference.