PowerPC Architecture Emulator Unleashed

Sebastian Biallas writes "We have finally released version 0.1 of our PowerPC architecture emulator: PearPC. The emulator itself is (prepared to be) architecture independent but only tested on x86s (here you go porters...). It also features a must faster just-in-time compilation unit for x86 hosts. This means that you can now run your favourite PowerPC-OS on x86: Mandrake Linux (9.1), Darwin (6 + 7) and Mac OS X (10.3)! And the best things is: it's GPL'd. But be warned: it's experimental.."

Must hurt to be wrong.

[Fuzzle]

Maybe you should actually read the webpage and see for yourself [sourceforge.net].

Re:I call total and complete bullshit on OSX...

[gmaestro]

If you read the website this guy is not claiming to have a working OSX environment. He clearly states the the emulated PPC rus 500 times slower than the host. This is just a cool program in very early beta. Besides, he has screenshots of the initial stages of and OSX install, which is pretty nice for version 0.1.

screenshots

[hassr]

the project page has screen shots of os-x installing.

• http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

Re:Work with OS X?

[Hungus]

A preparing installation screen is by no means proof that it is working with OS X. In fact since the emu is 1/500 th speed of the native system you can be certain it will be a while before an actual install can fully occur even without the issues of the other hardware bits.

Not the first

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

This is actually not the first PowerPC Mac emulator for x86. SheepShaver [uni-mainz.de] has been able to run PowerPC Mac OS (only up to Mac OS 8.6, not OS X) for some time now. It's from the developer of the excellent Basilisk II emulator.

Hopefully, the two projects will collaborate and help improve the performance of the emulator until it is usable. 1/20th of actual CPU speed would be acceptable.

Re:Panther on x86?

[boredMDer]

In one of the screenshots, the one of Drake, there is a cat /proc/cpuinfo.

It's running at 10 MHz.

QEmu?

[pkhuong]

Does anyone know how it compares to QEmu (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/)?

"QEMU is a FAST! processor emulator using dynamic translation to achieve good emulation speed. "

"News
(May 8, 2004) QEMU version 0.5.5 is out. (Changelog). Much improved Windows 98 support. VGA support in PowerPC PREP target.

(Apr 26, 2004) QEMU version 0.5.4 is out. (Changelog). This is the first version which is able to install and run Windows XP (experimental). This is also the first version which is able to boot a PowerPC PREP Linux kernel on a PC."

Re:Not the first

[Lord Kano]

As you can probably tell, the Mac emulation scene is pretty much dead.

Emulating a Mac on x86 isn't the same beast as emulating the x86 on a Mac. For one the markets aren't the same.

Everyone who needs to run Mac programs, has a Mac. Something like this would only be useful for someone who wants to experiment. High speed isn't as critical as it was for someone who needed to run a Win98 App under Mac OS 8.x.

LK

Re:Why not use it natively?

[jweatherley]

But, what I want to know is how well and how fast does Mac OS X run on it.

From the PearPC site:

Due to the nature of emulation, PearPC is quite slow (the client will run about 500 times slower than the host).

Not too quick then!