For the curious x86 Linux user, emulation is a convenient and inexpensive alternative. There are at least three open source PowerPC emulators available, two of which are quite new.
Emulation and cross-development for PowerPC
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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PowerPC this, PowerPC that, Java this, java that. Why do all these articles get posted? IBM has an agenda to push, and that’s running Java apps on Linux on their PPC-based servers. If you feel curious about PowerPC get a $500 mini Mac and be done with it. Hint, PPC assembler is like heaven compared to that pile of junk that is the ia-32 ISA. x86-64 is slightly better, though.
Article:
“Some developers may not have access to a PowerPC® Linux™ system to play with (although you can buy one for less than US$200 at the time of this writing).”
I’d certainly like to know. I have one p615 running suse at my shop… Far more than $200.
But i’d get one if I could find it for home use.
@me
You can buy used Macs for under $100, easy…
And I think Buffalo has an inexpensive (and low powered) PPC System for under $200.00 that runs Linux. It’s meant to be a Storage Server, but it can be hacked into more useful box.
http://www.wegenermedia.com has G3 266 PowerMacs for $89, and one can kick it up nicely with a $200 budget (G4 450 + more RAM).
“Some developers may not have access to a PowerPC® Linux™ system to play with (although you can buy one for less than US$200 at the time of this writing).”
New? Kurubox IIRC. PegasosV1 and other G3s are dead cheap as well right now. 2nd handies, e.g. people buying Pegasosv2, might be even cheaper. I don’t think the AmigaOne is as cheap as $200 though. Else, for POWER, an old RS6000 might be enough to learn, especially if you get AIX (e.g. 5L!) license with it.
You can get a cheap PPC system running Linux from Hauppage. These have the IBM STBx25xx ‘Vulcan’ system-on-chip in ’em, which includes a PPC405 core clocked at 200Mhz. And it run’s Linux to begin with. And I’ve seen ’em for around £30 (about $57).
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/mediamvp_datasheet.htm
PS: The open source PPC emulator SheepShaver (JIT) has been around longer then PearPC and supports AltiVec and up to Mac OS 9.0.4 (which it runs fast). Recently the developer (Gwenolé Beauchesne) ported it to Windows.
http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SheepShaver.html
Here’s a good site about getting it working: http://www.ou.nl/open/hsp/Engels/SheepShaver_Help
“PS: The open source PPC emulator SheepShaver (JIT) has been around longer then PearPC and supports AltiVec and up to Mac OS 9.0.4 (which it runs fast). ”
[From the Link]
“SheepShaver doesn’t boot
SheepShaver should boot all MacOS versions from 7.5.2, to 8.6.”
The Windows port of SheepShaver currently only supports OS 8.5.x, 8.6 and 9.0.x using the ROM extracted from the Mac_OS_ROM_Update_1.0.smi.bin file.
The older ports of SheepShaver for other host OSes (like x86 Linux) can also run OS 7.5.2+ using a ROM file extracted from a PPC Mac as listed on the site noted above.
Two forums for getting assistance running SheepShaver (and other Mac emulators like PearPC and Basilisk II) are:
http://www.emaculation.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=20
http://forums.delphiforums.com/MacEmulation
Does anybody know if AIX 5L will run on these emulators. It would be nice to be able to play around it without having to spring for an IBM eServer.
Second hand RS/6000 (now pSeries) aren’t that expensive. Though not cheap exactly. I have a secondhand 7043-140, which runs AIX 5.1 and it came quite cheap off Ebay.
I do agree that it would be nice to be able to run AIX in an emulator though. In fact one of my collegues asked the Pearpc people about it, but they said it just wasn’t a priority for them.