diff --git a/bolt_ppc64.go b/bolt_ppc64.go
index 2dc6be0..9331d97 100644
--- a/bolt_ppc64.go
+++ b/bolt_ppc64.go
@@ -7,3 +7,6 @@ const maxMapSize = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFF // 256TB
 
 // maxAllocSize is the size used when creating array pointers.
 const maxAllocSize = 0x7FFFFFFF
+
+// Are unaligned load/stores broken on this arch?
+var brokenUnaligned = false