This is a Haiku-native BeBox emulator that recreates Be Inc.'s dual-processor hardware and its earlier Hobbit prototypes so you can run historical PowerPC and Hobbit-era BeOS releases. It interprets two PowerPC 603/603e CPUs (66 or 133 MHz) with the MPC105 bridge, emulates boot ROM flash and NVRAM, and provides video (Number Nine GXE64 or Cirrus Logic), audio via a Crystal CS4231A hooked to Haiku's media kit, SCSI/IDE/floppy storage, AT/PS2 input, four game ports, four serial ports, and an NE2000-compatible Ethernet on a private NAT network. The front-panel LED “blinkenlights,” shared folders exposed as SCSI disks, and writable ROM updates are supported; some ports (parallel, GeekPort, MIDI, infrared) are not emulated. It runs BeOS PowerPC releases from Developer Release 6 through R5.0.3 and can extract newer boot ROMs from some CDs.
Hobbit prototype emulation models two AT&T 92010 processors, basic BeBus video (Trident VGA), and PC-compatible I/O, but omits three DSPs, Ethernet, joystick controller and some ports; because no Hobbit boot ROM survives, the emulator loads /system/kernel directly and prints kernel messages to a serial console. To use it you must supply original BeBox boot ROM files and BeOS CD images; preferences let you assign ROM/NVRAM, attach storage, create disk images, choose memory for Hobbit runs, and manage machine profiles (including saved flash and NVRAM) for different BeOS releases. Installation from Hobbit floppy sets and QCOW2 overlays for image safety are supported, and the UI exposes common tasks like choosing boot volumes and forwarding host ports.
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