ARCHIVED: What are AIM, CHRP, and the PPCP?

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The AIM Alliance is composed of Apple, IBM, and Motorola, the three companies that created the PowerPC Platform (PPCP), formerly known as the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP). The PPCP was built around the PowerPC processor, a RISC (Reduced Instruction-Set Computing) microprocessor also developed by AIM. It was based on earlier PowerPC systems (the PowerPC Reference Platform [PReP], Apple RISC architecture, and IBM RISC server systems), and was initially designed with the idea that it would be able to run many operating systems, such as Mac OS, Windows NT, AIX, or OS/2, on the same hardware.

AIM's intention was also to make development for the PPCP flexible, easy, and cost effective. Partially because of disagreements between the principal companies, development of the platform has largely ceased; however, AIM still cooperates on the development of the PowerPC processor.

For more history and information on the role of AIM on current technologies, see this Mac News World article:

  http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/34030.html