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| POWER,PowerPC, andPower ISA architectures |
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| NXP (formerly Freescale and Motorola) |
| IBM |
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| IBM/Nintendo |
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PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) was a standardsystem architecture forPowerPC-based computer systems (as well as areference implementation) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published byIBM in 1994, it allowed hardware vendors to build a machine that could run various operating systems, includingWindows NT,OS/2,Solaris,Taligent andAIX.
One of the stated goals of the PReP specification was to leverage standard PC hardware.Apple, wishing to seamlessly transition itsMacintosh computers to PowerPC, found this to be particularly problematic. As it appeared no one was particularly happy with PReP, a new standard, theCommon Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP), was developed and published in late 1995, incorporating the elements of both PReP and thePower Macintosh architecture. Key to CHRP was the requirement forOpen Firmware (also required in PReP-compliant systems delivered after June 1, 1995), which gave vendors greatly improved support during the boot process, allowing the hardware to be far more varied.
PReP systems were never popular.[clarification needed] Finding current, readily available operating systems for old PReP hardware can be difficult.Debian andNetBSD still maintain their respective ports to this architecture, although developer and user activity is extremely low.[clarification needed] TheRTEMS real-time operating system provides a board support package for PReP which can be run utilizing theQEMU PReP emulator. This provides a convenient development environment for PowerPC-based real-time, embedded systems.
Power.org has aPower Architecture Platform Reference (PAPR) that provides the foundation for development ofPower ISA-based computers running theLinux operating system. PAPR was released in the fourth quarter of 2006.