Common Hardware Reference Platform

System architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems

POWER, PowerPC, and Power ISA architectures
NXP (formerly Freescale and Motorola)
PowerPC e series (2006) e200 e300 e500 e600 e5500 e6500 Qor series (2008) QorIQ Qorivva
IBM
Power series (1990) POWER1 POWER2 POWER3 POWER4 POWER5 POWER6 POWER7 POWER8 POWER9 Power10 PowerPC series (1992) 6xx 4xx 7xx 74xx 970 A2 (2010) A2I A2O RAD series (1997) RAD6000 RAD750 RAD5500 RS64 series (1996)
IBM/Nintendo
Gekko Broadway Espresso
Other
Titan PWRficient Cell Xenon X704
Related links
OpenPOWER Foundation AIM alliance RISC Blue Gene Power.org PAPR PReP CHRP AltiVec
Cancelled in gray, historic in italic
v t e

Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) is a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems published jointly by IBM and Apple in 1995. Like its predecessor PReP, it was conceptualized as a design to allow various operating systems to run on an industry standard hardware platform, and specified the use of Open Firmware and RTAS for machine abstraction purposes.

History

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Unlike PReP, CHRP incorporated elements of the Power Macintosh architecture and was intended to support the classic Mac OS and NetWare, in addition to the four operating systems that had been ported to PReP at the time (Windows NT, OS/2, Solaris, and AIX).

CHRP did not receive industry-wide adoption, however. The only systems to ship with actual CHRP hardware are certain members of IBM's RS/6000 series running AIX, and small amount of Motorola PowerStack workstations.^[1]

Apple had planned to support CHRP on Mac OS 8, and expected Macintosh clone manufacturers to adopt it for their future hardware. However, after their acquisition of NeXT and appointment of Steve Jobs as acting CEO, Apple began to phase out the clone program, and decided against licensing any CHRP-based hardware.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Power.org has a new Power Architecture Platform Reference (PAPR) that provides the foundation for development of Power ISA-based computers running the Linux operating system. The PAPR was released fourth quarter of 2006.

Notes

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^ "2.1. Supported Hardware". www.debian.org. Archived from the original on 2021年09月30日. Retrieved 2021年09月30日.
^ Writer, CBR Staff (1997年05月21日). "APPLE KEEPS CLONE MAKERS WAITING OVER MAC OS 8 TERMS". Computer Business Review. Retrieved 2025年11月10日.
^ "Apple Sending Clone Makers Mixed Signals". The New York Times. 1997年08月11日. Retrieved 2025年11月10日.
^ "Apple Won't OK Newest Computers From Clone-Makers". San Francisco Examiner . 1997年08月19日. Retrieved 2025年11月09日.