List of PowerPC-based game consoles

Short description: none

There are several ways in which game consoles can be categorized. One is by its console generation, and another is by its computer architecture. Game consoles have long used specialized and customized computer hardware with the base in some standardized processor instruction set architecture. In this case, it is PowerPC and Power ISA, processor architectures initially developed in the early 1990s by the AIM alliance, i.e. Apple, IBM, and Motorola.

Even though these consoles share much in regard to instruction set architecture, game consoles are still highly specialized computers so it is not common for games to be readily portable or compatible between devices. Only Nintendo has kept a level of portability between their consoles, and even there it is not universal.

The first devices used standard processors, but later consoles used bespoke processors with special features, primarily developed by or in cooperation with IBM for the explicit purpose of being in a game console. In this regard, these computers can be considered "embedded". All three major consoles of the seventh generation were PowerPC based.

As of 2019, no PowerPC-based game consoles are currently in production. The most recent release, Nintendo's Wii U, has since been discontinued and succeeded by the Nintendo Switch (which uses a Nvidia Tegra ARM processor). The PlayStation 3, the last PowerPC-based game console to remain in production, was discontinued in 2017.

List

Name	Image	Manufacturer	Generation	CPU	Clock	RAM	On the market	No. sold
Pippin		Apple Bandai Katz Media	5th	PowerPC 603	66 MHz	6 MB	1995–1997	42.000
M2		3DO Panasonic		2× PowerPC 602	2× 66 MHz	8 MB	1997 Never marketed	none
GameCube		Nintendo	6th	Gekko	486 MHz	24 MB	2001–2007	21.74 million
Xbox 360		Microsoft	7th	XCPU (Xbox 360) XCGPU (Xbox 360 S and Xbox 360 E)	3.2 GHz	512 MB	2005–2016	84 million June 2014
Wii		Nintendo		Broadway	729 MHz	64 MB	2006–2017	101.63 million March 2016
PlayStation 3		Sony		Cell B.E.	3.2 GHz	512 MB	2006–2017	87 million May 2017
Wii U		Nintendo	8th	Espresso	1.24 GHz	2 GB	2012–2017	13.36 million September 2016

See also

• PowerPC applications
• List of PowerPC processors