The NASA Perseverance Rover uses the same PowerPC chipset found in the 1998 i3 iMac

NASA’s Perseverance rover, which recently landed history on the surface of Mars, runs on the same processor used in an iMac over 23 years old.

As reported 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 that is sent on a consumer computer and the one that scans the space. The rover’s processor is built to withstand temperatures between -67 and 257 degrees Fahrenheit (-55 and 125 degrees Celsius) and includes an added price of $ 200,000.

The PowerPC 750 processor advanced the game for its time, with a 233 MHz single-core processor, 6 million transistors (compared to the current 16 billion single-chip) and based on an architecture 32-bit.

Apple used PowerPC chips on Mac computers until it switched to Intel in 2005. Right now, Apple is experiencing a similar shift, moving away from Intel to deploy its own custom silicon from Apple on Macs.