IBM's developerWorks has published an overview of the PowerPC's architecture and application-level programming model that could be of interest to embedded developers doing kernel work on PPC-Linux systems.

The detailed, technical article begins with a discussion of PowerPC architecture, common to all chip branches and comprised of:

• Book I. User instruction set architecture
• Book II. Virtual environment architecture
• Book III. Operating environment architecture

The article then delves into the programming model, discussing:

• Application-level registers
• Application-level instruction set
• Timers
• Maintaining code compatibility

Both PowerPC AS and PowerPC Book E are addressed.

Read PPC developer's guide at developerWorks

 
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