PearPC is an architecture-independent
PowerPC platform
emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use pe ...
capable of running many PowerPC
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
s, including pre-Intel versions of
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
,
Darwin and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
. It is released under the terms of the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
(GPL). It can be executed on
Microsoft Windows,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
,
FreeBSD and other systems based on
POSIX
The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines both the system- and user-level application programming inter ...
-
X11
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...
. The first official release was made on May 10, 2004.
The emulator features a
just-in-time (JIT) processor emulation core which
dynamically translates PPC code into x86 code, caching the results. Despite running only on x86 host architectures, the JIT emulation core runs at least 10 times as fast as the architecture-independent generic processor emulation core. However, according to the
man page
A man page (short for manual page) is a form of software documentation usually found on a Unix or Unix-like operating system. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and e ...
s supplied with
Debian's packages of PearPC, even the JIT core runs around 40 times slower than the host machine would if executing native code.
Until December 2005 PearPC advanced quickly in speed, stability and features. After that time, however, there were no new release until July 2011( five and a half years later). Individuals have also been working on builds with more features such as native CD-ROM support and even progress in emulating sound had begun. Builds including
AltiVec emulation to run applications that require a
PowerPC G4
PowerPC G4 is a designation formerly used by Apple and Eyetech to describe a ''fourth generation'' of 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors. Apple has applied this name to various (though closely related) processor models from Freescale, a former part of ...
processor were also produced, although there were numerous problems (mainly interface glitches) with running Mac OS X Tiger using such builds which were not resolved. Support for graphics acceleration were also worked on, which in theory should provide a major performance boost due to OS X's hardware-accelerated GUI known as
Quartz Extreme which is currently not supported in PearPC.
Shortcomings
The current official version of PearPC is 0.5.0 (released on July 12, 2015). While its PowerPC emulation handles most applications and the emulator already has an impressive feature set, the project still lacks features needed for a complete emulation of the PowerPC experience:
* Sound emulation (there are PearPC sound-test builds on the web, usually called ppc-snd)
* G5 (
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A compu ...
PowerPC) emulation
*
Apple Disk Image
Apple Disk Image is a disk image format commonly used by the macOS operating system. When opened, an Apple Disk Image is mounted as a volume within the Finder.
An Apple Disk Image can be structured according to one of several proprietary disk ...
(.dmg) support for use as an image (currently, to use a .dmg image the file must be converted into an
ISO image
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ...
(.iso)
*
Mac OS X Leopard
Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc., Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Mac OS X Tig ...
support (instead, try using
OSx86)
On June 6, 2005, Apple's (then) CEO, Steve Jobs, announced that Apple would begin switching its computer's architecture from IBM's PowerPC to Intel's x86 platform. The transition was completed in August 2006. The news raised a lot of questions about the future of the PearPC project because although the project itself is a PowerPC emulator, it is used primarily to run Mac OS X on x86 machines. As Mac OS X can now be run natively on the x86 platform, including on non-Apple computers (albeit in contravention of the Mac OS X license agreement), interest in PearPC has waned since and attention now largely centers on running Mac OS X natively on x86 hardware or in virtualization software such as
VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation Pro (known as VMware Workstation until release of VMware Workstation 12 in 2015) is a hosted (Type 2) hypervisor that runs on x64 versions of Windows and Linux operating systemshttps://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/sear ...
.
Frontends
PearPC currently lacks its own
GUI
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
— the 'Change CD' button found in early versions have been eliminated because it rarely functioned correctly. However, developers have made frontends for the program. Two of these are PearGUI, which looks like a Mac OS X application but is incompatible with current versions of PearPC, and PearPCCP (short for "PearPC Control Panel"), which is compatible with PearPC 0.3 and newer. PearGUI's incompleteness annoys many users and its 'Create Disk Image' feature is not yet complete (a severe shortcoming), but many users have praised its GUI. PearPCCP has a built-in configuration wizard in addition to other advanced features but is hindered by what many users believe to be an inferior interface and several bugs. Some users also report that PearPCCP removes comments from configuration files, while PearGUI does not. The PearPC.net website also released its own Java-based PearPC-GUI, called APE, which is part of the PearPC.net Package.
CherryOS is alleged to be simply a front-end for PearPC. Its website was shut down in May 2005.
CherryOS controversy
Within five months of PearPC's release, another PowerPC emulator called
CherryOS appeared, claiming to offer more features and greater speed. However, within hours of its announcement, questions were raised about the claims, with many experts and open-source advocates suggesting that CherryOS was nothing more than a repackaging of PearPC. The CherryOS Emulator was re-released in March 2005 as a commercial product. According to Cassondra Foesch, a principal author of PearPC, it still contained all or part of the code written for the PearPC Project. CherryOS also created questions regarding the legality of commercial software developed and marketed specifically for the purpose of running Mac OS on the x86 architecture, since Apple's license agreement specifically states that the operating system may only be installed on Apple-labeled computers. Eventually, the distribution of CherryOS ceased due to the very high amount of criticism that had been directed at it.
In addition, although CherryOS supports native CD-ROM installation, the emulator itself runs a bit slower than PearPC does, even though it claims to run three times faster than PearPC.
Emulated hardware
CPU:
*
PowerPC G3
The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola (spun off as Freescale Semiconductor bought by NXP Semiconductors). This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-kn ...
, or
PowerPC G4
PowerPC G4 is a designation formerly used by Apple and Eyetech to describe a ''fourth generation'' of 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors. Apple has applied this name to various (though closely related) processor models from Freescale, a former part of ...
Ethernet:
*
3Com
3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe e ...
3C905C
*
Realtek 8139
[pearpc-0.4.tar.bz2: pearpc-0.4/src/io/rtl8139/rtl8139.cc]
See also
*
Comparison of platform virtualization software
Platform virtualization software, specifically emulators and hypervisors, are software packages that emulate the whole physical computer machine, often providing multiple virtual machines on one physical platform. The table below compares basic i ...
References and notes
External links
*
PearPC.Net, a Community-run PearPC SitePearPC Web ForumPearPC Windows setup guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearpc
Macintosh platform emulators
Free emulation software
PowerPC emulators
Virtualization software
Assembly language software