diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 068f24beaa2be9427e3c3910b19c60360efff616..9efac2e29f564b9793f5890c088ff4b3ca932608 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -236,6 +236,7 @@ Patches have also been contributed by:
   Radu Caragea         <dmns_serp@yahoo.com>
   Beat Jörg            <Beat.Joerg@ssatr.ch>
   Gao feng             <gaofeng@cn.fujitsu.com>
+  Dipankar Sarma       <dipankar@in.ibm.com>
 
   [....send patches to get your name here....]
 
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 55e772fd1c5628d37e0c71c7142a63f34e6586c7..af5ff5b929d6cc859eb22472447c60d248218f6c 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -2555,7 +2555,8 @@ qemuControllerModelUSBToCaps(int model)
 
 
 static int
-qemuBuildUSBControllerDevStr(virDomainControllerDefPtr def,
+qemuBuildUSBControllerDevStr(virDomainDefPtr domainDef,
+                             virDomainControllerDefPtr def,
                              virBitmapPtr qemuCaps,
                              virBuffer *buf)
 {
@@ -2564,8 +2565,12 @@ qemuBuildUSBControllerDevStr(virDomainControllerDefPtr def,
 
     model = def->model;
 
-    if (model == -1)
-        model = VIR_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_MODEL_USB_PIIX3_UHCI;
+    if (model == -1) {
+        if (STREQ(domainDef->os.arch, "ppc64"))
+            model = VIR_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_MODEL_USB_PCI_OHCI;
+        else
+            model = VIR_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_MODEL_USB_PIIX3_UHCI;
+    }
 
     smodel = qemuControllerModelUSBTypeToString(model);
     caps = qemuControllerModelUSBToCaps(model);
@@ -2651,7 +2656,7 @@ qemuBuildControllerDevStr(virDomainDefPtr domainDef,
         break;
 
     case VIR_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_TYPE_USB:
-        if (qemuBuildUSBControllerDevStr(def, qemuCaps, &buf) == -1)
+        if (qemuBuildUSBControllerDevStr(domainDef, def, qemuCaps, &buf) == -1)
             goto error;
 
         if (nusbcontroller)