The Mirari PPC: a modern miracle for Amiga enthusiasts

Few thought we’d ever see new PowerPC hardware for the Amiga platform again, but a small team of Dutch indie engineers is about to prove otherwise. Their project, Mirari PPC, sets out to revive the classic spirit of Amiga computing with a blend of community passion and modern engineering — and in true poetic fashion, mirari means miracle in Portuguese. Built around a QorlQ T1042 quad-core PPC processor clocked at up to 1.6 GHz, the Mirari PPC promises to deliver respectable performance within a compact micro-ATX (244 x 170 mm) form factor. It supports DDR3L SODIMM memory (1.35V, up to DDR1600) and comes with a thoughtful mix of PCIe 2.0 expansion slots to accommodate modern GPUs and peripherals — a long-awaited upgrade for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS users. Storage options are impressively flexible: dual SATA 2.0 ports and two NVMe slots (one shared with SATA), ensuring compatibility with both legacy drives and blazing-fast SSDs. Add to that USB 3.2 Gen1, an onboard FPGA for future enhancements, and native support for AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, and various PPC Linux distributions, and you’ve got a system that feels both retro and refreshingly current. According to developer updates from AmiWest (US) and Amiga40 (Germany), prototypes are complete, Linux and MorphOS are running smoothly, and work on AmigaOS 4 drivers is well underway. The expected release window stands at mid-2026, with an estimated retail price between €500–€600 — roughly half the cost of an AmigaONE X5000 and significantly cheaper than the SAM460ex. For those who fondly remember their Phase 5 days or want to give aging machines like the PegasosII or AmigaONE XE a modern replacement, the Mirari PPC could be the most exciting new Amiga project in years.

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