• Important note:(Jun-2000)
  I still haven't my PowerPC Blizzard (now for eight months!). But in last months I learnt a lot about the ppc assembler so I started to support it nevertheless I haven't the hardware here yet. Here I have to thank a lot to Robert Kihl for his patiency when I wanted him to test all my PowerPC stuff.
  
  
• Important note:(Oct-2000)
  I finally got my ppc blizzard :))) Now it's for about month I got it and lots of work is already done. Nevertheless this release has some limitations and not everything may work. If You found sth (probably yes), please report.
  
  
• Limitations:
  Not all functions from powerd.lib are rewritten to ppc native assembly. Some functions I converted, some rewrote as D (not assembly) source and some aren't rewritten at all. Be sure I'm working on it and I'll release v1.0 what should have most such disadvantages and limitations removed.
  
  There are several ((very) important) things, that currently doesn't work. These will be fixed sooner or later. But be sure, that You can write as normally for 68k, because the only difference is OPT PPC added on Your source, so if it now does work with 68k and doesn't with ppc, be sure it will in (near) future.
  
  
  • watch included example (rtg.d) and compile it with OPT PPC enabled and disabled
    • I know that those 'screen contents' routine is slow as hell in 68k, this is because of non-optimized 68k code, it can be made much faster, but when You compile the same under powerpc, it's fast enough, here You can see the speed difference between 68k and ppc :)
    • There is also rtgppc.d example, which use powerpc native rtg functions, which doesn't require any context switches and it's also quite faster than the rtg.d compiled for powerpc.
  
  
  
• Requirements:
  • To compile ppc sources:
    • pasm - powerpc assembler by Frank Wille, it might be found on Frank Wille's homepage.
    • vlink - powerpc/m68k object file linker also by Frank Wille.
    • rest is the same as for non-ppc programms
  • To run ppc programms:
    • some PowerPC equipped Amiga :) and powerpc.library v14+ It might work also under v7 of this library, but I haven't tested it.
  
  
  
• Future:
  • Better support for mixed binary executables
  • PPC and 68k in one source!!!
  
  
  
• Usage:
  You can simply add to Your source OPT PPC or compile the source with parameter cpu=603 (eg.: dc test.d cpu=ppc).
  Pay attention that the 'OPT PPC' is placed before the first procedure, because initial code generator is 68xxx and it will try to compile that procedure as 68k code and it currently doesn't work.
  (btw: the PPC keyword after OPT keyword is defined in dmodules:powerd/options.m module, so it isn't anything hardcoded ;)