The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor). This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-known customer Apple Inc., which introduced it on November 10, 1997. The term "PowerPC G3" is often, and incorrectly, imagined to be a microprocessor when in fact a number of microprocessors from different vendors have been used. Such designations were applied to Macintosh computers such as the PowerBook G3, the multicolored iMacs, iBooks and several desktops, including both the Beige and Blue and White Power Macintosh G3s. The low power requirements and small size made the processors ideal for laptops and the name lived out its last days at Apple in the iBook.
The 7xx family is also widely used in embedded devices like printers, routers, storage devices, spacecraft, and video game consoles. The 7xx family had its shortcomings, namely lack of SMP support and SIMD capabilities and a relatively weak FPU. Motorola's 74xx range of processors picked up where the 7xx left off.
The PowerPC 740 and 750 (codename Arthur) were introduced in late 1997 as an evolutionary replacement for the PowerPC 603e. Enhancements included a faster 60x system bus (66 MHz), larger L1 caches (32 KB instruction and 32 KB data), a second integer unit, an enhanced floating point unit, and higher core frequency. The 750 had support for an optional 256, 512 or 1024 KB external unified L2 cache. The cache controller and cache tags are on-die. The cache was accessed via a dedicated 64-bit bus.