Editing PowerPC (section)

=== Operating systems ===
Since 1991, IBM had a long-standing desire for a unifying operating system that would simultaneously host all existing operating systems as personalities upon one microkernel. From 1991 to 1995, the company designed and aggressively evangelized what would become [[Workplace OS]], primarily targeting PowerPC.<ref name="Apple: The Inside Story">{{cite book | title=Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders | first=Jim | last=Carlton | orig-year=1997 | date=1999 | publisher=Random House | isbn=978-0099270737 | oclc=925000937 | url=https://archive.org/details/appleinsidestory0000carl | url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|290–291}}

When the first PowerPC products reached the market, they were met with enthusiasm. In addition to Apple, both IBM and the Motorola Computer Group offered systems built around the processors. [[Microsoft]] released [[Windows NT 3.51]] for the architecture, which was used in Motorola's PowerPC servers, and [[Sun Microsystems]] offered a version of its [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] OS. IBM ported its [[IBM AIX|AIX]] [[Unix]]. Workplace OS featured a new port of [[OS/2]] (with Intel emulation for application compatibility), pending a successful launch of the PowerPC 620. Throughout the mid-1990s, PowerPC processors achieved [[Benchmark (computing)|benchmark]] test scores that matched or exceeded those of the fastest x86 CPUs.

Ultimately, demand for the new architecture on the desktop never truly materialized. Windows, OS/2, and Sun customers, faced with the lack of application software for the PowerPC, almost universally ignored the chip. IBM's Workplace OS platform (and thus, OS/2 for PowerPC) was summarily canceled upon its first developers' release in December 1995 due to the simultaneous buggy launch of the PowerPC 620. The PowerPC versions of Solaris and Windows were discontinued after only a brief period on the market. Only on the Macintosh, due to Apple's persistence, did the PowerPC gain traction. To Apple, the performance of the PowerPC was a bright spot in the face of increased competition from Windows 95 and Windows NT-based PCs.

With the cancellation of Workplace OS, the general PowerPC platform (especially AIM's [[Common Hardware Reference Platform]]) was instead seen as a hardware-only compromise to run many operating systems one at a time upon a single unifying vendor-neutral hardware platform.<ref name="Apple: The Inside Story"/>{{rp|287–288}}

In parallel with the alliance between IBM and Motorola, both companies had development efforts underway internally. The [[PowerQUICC]] line was the result of this work inside Motorola. The 4xx series of embedded processors was underway inside IBM. The IBM embedded processor business grew to nearly US$100 million in revenue and attracted hundreds of customers.

{{Blockquote|text=The development of the PowerPC is centered at an Austin, Texas, facility called the Somerset Design Center. The building is named after the site in Arthurian legend where warring forces put aside their swords, and members of the three teams that staff the building say the spirit that inspired the name has been a key factor in the project's success thus far.|source=''MacWeek''<ref name="MacWeek Vol7 Num12">{{cite magazine | magazine=[[MacWeek]] | title=Forces Gather for PowerPC Roundtable | volume=7 | issue=12 | date=March 22, 1993 | url=https://archive.org/details/MacWEEKV07N12/page/n37/mode/1up | page=38| access-date=October 3, 2017}}</ref>}}

{{Quote|text=Part of the culture here is not to have an IBM or Motorola or Apple culture, but to have our own.|source=Motorola's Russell Stanphill, codirector of Somerset<ref name="MacWeek Vol7 Num12"/>}}