[torginus]

I wonder how true this rumor is, but I remember reading that around the time the F35's computer system was designed, Lockheed Martin shopped around for CPUs from different vendors. PowerPC was a very popular architecture used in military hardware, so LM contracted IBM to design a CPU for them.

In Aerospace applications, it's very popular to have triple-redundant system, that's why IBM designed an unusual 3-core PowerPC CPU. Later, when Microsoft came into the picture, they used the design, with essentially minimal modifications.

I haven't followed the F-35s development that closely, so I have no idea what they ended up using, but it's an interesting rumor nontheless.

[javagram]

FWIW, the Xbox 360 chip was based on the processor developed for the PS3. No mention of F-35 here. “These cores are slightly modified versions of the PPE in the Cell processor used on the PlayStation 3” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_(processor)

[torginus]

Still, nothing would've prevented IBM from using the Cell PPE as the basis for a PowerPC chip for the military, so that doesn't disprove the theory.

[monocasa]

I know that the Xenon was being simultaneously taped out with the Cell PPE, so it doesn't derive from another cell derived core.

The book "The Race for a New Game Machine" goes over the timing pretty well.