PowerPC 601

The PowerPC 601 is the first PowerPC processor used by Apple Computer, introduced in the Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, and 8100. These were developed by the AIM alliance, which included Apple, IBM, and Motorola. The 601 processors were manufactured by IBM. Later variants with higher clock speeds included the PowerPC 601v and 601+.

Development history
The PowerPC 601 was designed on a crash schedule. A big part of the success in its adoption hinged on the Mac 68k emulator written by Gary Davidian. It allowed nearly seamless backwards compatibility with older software written for Motorola 68000 series processors, at modest tradeoff in speed.