Inside the Machine

The PowerPC 603 and 603e

While one team was putting the finishing touches on the 601, another team at IBM’s Sommerset Design Center in Austin had already begun working on the 601’s successor—the 603. The 603 was a significantly different design than the 601, so it was less of an evolutionary shift than it was a completely different processor. Table 6-2 summarizes the features of the PowerPC 603 and 603e.

Table 6-2. Features of the PowerPC 603 and 603e

	PowerPC 603 Vitals	PowerPC 603e Vitals
Introduction Date	May 1, 1995	October 16, 1995
Process	0.50 micron	0.50 micron
Transistor Count	1.6 million	2.6 million
Die Size	81 mm2	98 mm2
Clock Speed at Introduction	75 MHz	100 MHz
L1 Cache Size	16KB split L1	32KB split L1
First Appeared In	Macintosh Performa 5200CD	Macintosh ...