QEMU/PowerPC
QEMU can emulate the PowerPC architecture. It is able to run a handful of operating systems which I'll document below.
Platforms
The following machines can be emulated. To see a full list type qemu-system-ppc --M help.
| Model | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 40p | IBM RS/6000 7020 (40p) (1990) | Can boot some versions of AIX |
| bamboo | bamboo board | First machine emulated by PowerPC |
| g3beige | Heathrow based PowerMAC (1997) | |
| mac99 | Mac99 based PowerMAC (1999) | Can run Mac OS 9.2 - 10.5 and some Linux distros |
| mpc8544ds | Mpc8544ds dev board | |
| none | Empty machine | |
| pegasos2 | Genesi/bPlan Pegasos II | Can run AmigaOS 4.1 and some other Amiga-like OSes |
| ppce500 | Generic paravirt e500 platform | |
| ref405ep | ref405ep | Needs a file named ppc405_rom.bin which does not seem to be available anymore |
| sam460ex | aCube Sam460ex | Can run AmigaOS 4.1 FE and some others |
| virtex-ml507 | Xilinx Virtex ML507 reference design |
Machines
IBM RS/6000 7020 (40p)
Server from ~1994. QEMU emulates the following peripherals for this machine:
- PCI bridge
- PCI VGA compatible card with VESA Bochs Extensions
- 2 IDE interfaces with hard disk and CD-ROM support
- Floppy disk
- PCnet network adapters
- Serial port
- PREP Non Volatile RAM
- PC compatible keyboard and mouse.
To start a very simple VM that'll boot into OpenBIOS:
qemu-system-ppc -M 40p -boot c
Current OS compatibility sheet
| Operating system | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AIX 4.3 | Working | |
| AIX 5.1 | Working | The PCnet driver does not work in this OS; seems to be a bug with the emulation |
| AIX 5.2, 5.3 | Not working | OS indefinitely hangs |
| Windows NT 3.51 | Not working | Incompatible with OpenBIOS |
| Windows NT 4.0 SP2 | Not working | Incompatible with OpenBIOS |