non-intel based OS's

[carbonBased]

The current incarnation of my OS has been structured and written to facilitate multiple platforms and I've lately started thinking about what platform, aside from x86, I should tackle next.

I'm currently considering the following:
StrongARM
[Ultra/Micro]Sparc
PPC

I'm curious to know if anyone has done any work on these systems. In particular, I'm looking for information on their boot processes, availability of good development tools and emulators (I believe qemu will suffice, but I haven't tried out its emulation of non-x86 PCs... has anyone?) and any tips, suggestions and/or resources.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Legend]

After having x86, AMD64 might be a good next step.
Similiar concepts in a lot of areas like x86 (no surprise, I know ^^), but already enough to need an own architecture. And it would be a step to 64-bit safety in your code, which might be helpful for 64-bit PPC systems, too.

[burnhamd]

go for a 64bit ppc then convert to Ibms cell processor later

[carbonBased]

64-bit PPC sounds interesting, for sure.

I know next to nothing about it, however. Where can I find some info and/or tools? Is the 64-bit archicture based on its predecessor 32-bit architecture like AMD's 64-bit platform? If so, I may start with "legacy" 32-bit PPC as I already have a test platform for it, and then add support for the full 64-bit address space.

Cheers,
Jeff