AIX on QEMU is hardly any news. It has been done over and over again. Especially thanks to Artyom Tarasenko and subject to even more posts by Neozeed. However it was mostly plagued by having only serial console and using outdated QEMU. For a long time I wasn’t able to run it. Had to fire up some IBM rust if I wanted to build/test something on AIX. Lack of local UI was also pain. AIX 4.1.5 is full of cool GUI software, CATIA, Corel Draw, Word Perfect, FrameMaker, Lotus Notes, not to mention VisualAge! I know that you can connect to it via Xephyr/Xnest etc, but having a local console is way better!

Behold! AIX 4.1.5 in a full glory on emulated IBM RS/6000 7020-40P with PowerPC 604 and GXT110P video adapter. Also featuring front the panel display:

Let’s look at some cool apps!

I have prepared a ready to run, portable QEMU image with binaries for MacOS/Linux/Windows. Download and run: https://files.42718.net/mirror/tenox/os/aix/Virtual/aix415rs6k-qemu.tar.lz

Have Fun with Virtualization!

PS You may also be interested in AIX 3.2.5 in QEMU

Previously I ran a whole series of articles about vintage hypervisors and dos emulators for unix. Some of them: Merge, VP/ix, Wabi, SoftWindows, etc. Today we have a special gem: PC Simulator on AIX 3.x on POWER!

I recently virtualized AIX 3.2.5 on QEMU. While browsing Info Explorer I noticed this curiosity:

As you can imagine in 2026 this would be pretty much unobtanium relic. Fortunately Plamen, now confirmed having a time machine was able to score this:

Above is a plain text / ascii mode.

There also is X11 version!

Capable of VGA graphics!

Usage: pcsim. For X11/VGA mode: -dmode VGA. The pcsim can be launched with PC BASIC bios, or load DOS from floppy disk or HD image. For hd image: -Cdrive /usr/local/pcsim/pcdos5.img – In order to quit press ESC + type pcsim.

The pcsim tarball is here: https://files.42718.net/mirror/tenox/os/aix/3.2/pcsim-1.2-aix325-full.tar.Z

This is not strictly new. DG/UX worked on 86box before, but only partially. Low resolution and no networking made it almost unusable. Now it all has been patched up!

Ready to run image available here: https://files.42718.net/mirror/tenox/os/dgux/Virtual/DGUX-R4.20MU07-86Box-20261010.tar.lz

Behold! AIX 3.2.5 now runs in QEMU!

Along with full X11 AIXwindows Desktop support on emulated GXT150L.

Also featuring the 3 digit diag display with key switch for service mode! The display is addressable from the os via /usr/lib/methods/showled.

There are some gnu/pds apps in /usr/local/bin.

The exact machine emulated is 7006-41T (POWERstation 41T, 1994) + GXT150L

The QEMU branch: https://github.com/tenox7/qemu/tree/aix3

Ready to run portable QEMU image: https://tenox.pdp-11.net/os/aix/Virtual/aix325rs6000-qemu.tar.lz

Have fun with Virtualization!

Updates:

Yesterday I featured a QEMU branch capable of booting Windows NT PowerPC. I was asked in comments if this by any chance also supports OS/2 on this architecture. The answer is: YES!

Here is the result:

Here is a link to a ready to run image: https://tenox.pdp-11.net/os/os2/virtual/os2powerpc-qemu.tar.lz – it takes a little bit of time appearing stuck on PowerPC logo with a warning sign, but not too worry it will boot up.

The branch is https://github.com/tenox7/qemu/tree/powerpc

You can learn more about OS/2 PowerPC edition at OS/2 Museum.

Another day another NT QEMU post. This time we have stock Windows NT 4.0 PowerPC running on QEMU, with complete emulation of the BIOS / Firmware and everything. Networking and 1280×1024 resolution.

QEMU branch: https://github.com/tenox7/qemu/tree/powerpc

Ready to run image: https://tenox.pdp-11.net/os/winnt/VMs/qemu-ppc/nt40powerpc-qemu.tar.lz

The image includes recently acquired Microsoft Office, SDK Tools, Visual Studio and a bunch of ported tools and utilities.

You may also be interested in Windows NT on IBM RS/6000 – Definitive Guide

In the previous post I build at NT 3.1 MIPS based QEMU image based on Jazz architecture.

Today another NT 3.1 but on Jensen! An early Alpha XP NT DEC box – I have an entire blog post about it.

1280×1024 resolution, networking, SP3, Alpha SDK preinstalled!

Ready to run image: https://tenox.pdp-11.net/os/winnt/VMs/qemu-axp/nt31axp-qemu.tar.lz

QEMU Branch: https://github.com/tenox7/qemu/tree/jensen

More software apps etc in the previous post.

Have fun with virtualization!

Behold! QEMU Jazz emulator can now boot and run NT 3.1 MIPS

With high res and networking fully working!

Github: https://github.com/tenox7/qemu/tree/jazz

Ready to run image: https://tenox.pdp-11.net/os/winnt/VMs/qemu-mips/nt31mips-qemu.tar.lz

In my previous post I featured SINIX-N on MIPS based Siemens RM-200 emulated in QEMU.

Since I did some work on RM-200 QEMU and this system is also capable of running Windows NT MIPS in Lite Endian mode (the CPU can switch endianness) I decided to also get it working:

I have previously covered NT on MIPS QEMU Jazz emulated machine. This is not that much different and fundamentally very close. Just a different machine with different firmware and peripherals. Also much newer QEMU version.

https://github.com/tenox7/qemu/tree/rm200

Ready to run image: https://tenox.pdp-11.net/os/winnt/VMs/qemu-mips/NTRM200-QEMU.tar.lz

Previously I got SINIX-Z running on 86box! But I really really wanted to run SINIX-N the MIPS counterpart!

Behold! MIPS R4000 SINIX-N running on QEMU emulated SNI RM-200!

After some time and couple of reboots we get to this:

and this:

This latest version 5.45 also features CDE:

The emulated Cirrus Logic GD5434 does 1152×864 and AMD PCnet NIC works fine. Not bad.

The QEMU branch is here. If you fancy submitting it to upstream go ahead.

If you want to install from scratch, my collection of SINIX install images and various application software is here.

For the lazy, I have prepared a ready to run image with all dependencies and QEMU binaries for Mac, Linux and Windows. The root password is just password. I have included bash and a bunch of GNU tools from gnustuff package under /home/tools. You can get gcc and others from here. There are some commercial apps here.

Have Fun with Virtualization!