AltiVec

AltiVec is a vector processing unit jointly developed by the AIM alliance (Apple Computer, IBM, and Motorola) for use in their PowerPC G4 and G5 processors.

Marketing
Although referred to as "AltiVec" by Motorola, it was marketed as the "Velocity Engine" by Apple, and Vector Multimedia Extension" (VMX) by IBM and P.A. Semi. The IBM and Motorola versions use compatible instruction sets, but the hardware logic implementations are very different from one another.

The first product to be released with a "Velocity Engine" was the Power Mac G4, which was introduced by Apple in 1999 with the PowerPC G4 as being the "first supercomputer on a chip". The G4's Velocity Engine was promoted as having the ability to process information in 128-bit increments, instead of 32-bit as was customary at the time.