NASA's Perseverance rover, which recently made history landing on the surface of Mars, is powered by the same processor used in an iMac more than 23 years old.
As reported by NewScientist (via Gizmodo), the rover includes the PowerPC 750 processor, the same chip used in the G3 iMac in 1998.
The main chipset is the same; however, there are differences between the version of the processor shipped in a consumer computer and the one exploring space. The processor in the rover is built to withstand temperatures between -67 and 257 degrees Fahrenheit (−55 and 125 degrees Celsius) and comes with an added $200,000 price tag.
The PowerPC 750 processor was ahead of the game for its time, featuring a single-core, 233MHz processor, 6 million transistors (compared to today's 16 billion in a single chip), and based on 32-bit architecture.
Apple used PowerPC chips in Mac computers until it transitioned to Intel in 2005. Right now, Apple's going through a similar change, moving away from Intel to deploy its own custom Apple silicon in Macs.
iOS 26.4 was released today, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps.
To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later....
Apple today announced Apple Business, a new all-in-one platform that unifies device management, productivity tools, and customer outreach features.
The service is designed to be a consolidated replacement for several of Apple's existing business-focused offerings, including Apple Business Essentials, Apple Business Manager, and Apple Business Connect. It provides organizations with a single...
Tuesday March 24, 2026 12:31 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and the AirPods 4. The firmware has a version number of 8B39, up from 8B34 on the AirPods Pro 3, 8B28 on the AirPods Pro 2, and 8B21 on the AirPods 4.
There is no word on what's included in the firmware, but Apple has a support document with limited notes. Most updates are limited to bug fixes and performance...
Because super-reliability is more important than compute power. The G3 is also used e.g. as mission computer in fighter jets. The feature is called fail-safe
if a more than two decade old processor is good enough to find out evidence of extraterrestrial past life, then I got no excuse to be buying anything that [S]Tosser[/S] Prosser is predicting anytime soon
It's also radiation hardened, which is where the price tag comes from (and also the most important thing setting it aside from the actual PowerPC 750 found in the iMac G3)
Anything launched into space has typically been in a multiple years long project, sometimes decade(s) long. It also usually costs a gazillion dollars.
What matters most is reliability and predictability... especially for something going millions (or billions) of miles away and not coming back that we can’t send astronauts to physically fix.
Most of the closed loop systems aboard aircraft, spacecraft, submarines, weapons and similar applications have very old, proven, but mundane processors and operating systems aboard... the last thing you want is “the new kid on the block” when the stakes are so high. Although parts of it are modernized as needed, the ECU in a typical car has the processing power no more than a Texas Instruments calculator... some of the software in Boeing and Airbus jets is virtually unchanged since the 1980s as well.
