diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 28189aa2b60..d38a3a60663 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Copyright (c) 2006      Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
                         Use is subject to license terms.
 Copyright (c) 2006-2017 Los Alamos National Security, LLC.  All rights
                         reserved.
-Copyright (c) 2010-2012 IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
+Copyright (c) 2010-2017 IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 Copyright (c) 2012      Oak Ridge National Labs.  All rights reserved.
 Copyright (c) 2012-2017 Sandia National Laboratories.  All rights reserved.
 Copyright (c) 2012      University of Houston. All rights reserved.
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ Removed legacy support:
   Open MPI BTL components for supported networks. Please see README for the currently
   available options.
 - Remove IB XRC support from the OpenIB BTL due to lack of support.
+- Remove support for big endian PowerPC.
+- Remove support for XL compilers older than v13.1
 
 Known issues (to be addressed in v3.0.1):
 
diff --git a/config/opal_check_vendor.m4 b/config/opal_check_vendor.m4
index c227c2a347f..056d9397592 100644
--- a/config/opal_check_vendor.m4
+++ b/config/opal_check_vendor.m4
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ dnl Copyright (c) 2004-2005 The Regents of the University of California.
 dnl                         All rights reserved.
 dnl Copyright (c) 2012      Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
 dnl Copyright (c) 2014      Intel, Inc. All rights reserved
+dnl Copyright (c) 2017      IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 dnl $COPYRIGHT$
 dnl
 dnl Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -114,6 +115,18 @@ AC_DEFUN([_OPAL_CHECK_COMPILER_VENDOR], [
           [OPAL_IF_IFELSE([defined(__FUJITSU)],
                [opal_check_compiler_vendor_result="fujitsu"])])
 
+    # IBM XL C/C++
+    AS_IF([test "$opal_check_compiler_vendor_result" = "unknown"],
+          [OPAL_IF_IFELSE([defined(__xlC__) || defined(__IBMC__) || defined(__IBMCPP__)],
+               [opal_check_compiler_vendor_result="ibm"
+                xlc_major_version=`$CC -qversion 2>&1 | tail -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | cut -d '.' -f 1`
+                xlc_minor_version=`$CC -qversion 2>&1 | tail -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | cut -d '.' -f 2`
+                AS_IF([ (test "$xlc_major_version" -lt "13" ) || (test "$xlc_major_version" -eq "13" && test "$xlc_minor_version" -lt "1" )],
+                    [AC_MSG_ERROR(["XL Compiler versions less than 13.1 not supported. Detected $xlc_major_version.$xlc_minor_version"])])
+               ],
+               [OPAL_IF_IFELSE([defined(_AIX) && !defined(__GNUC__)],
+                    [opal_check_compiler_vendor_result="ibm"])])])
+
     # GNU
     AS_IF([test "$opal_check_compiler_vendor_result" = "unknown"],
           [OPAL_IFDEF_IFELSE([__GNUC__],
@@ -131,7 +144,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([_OPAL_CHECK_COMPILER_VENDOR], [
                    AC_MSG_WARN([Detected gccfss being used to compile Open MPI.])
                    AC_MSG_WARN([Because of several issues Open MPI does not support])
                    AC_MSG_WARN([the gccfss compiler.  Please use a different compiler.])
-                   AC_MSG_WARN([If you didn't think you used gccfss you may want to])
+                   AC_MSG_WARN([If you did not think you used gccfss you may want to])
                    AC_MSG_WARN([check to see if the compiler you think you used is])
                    AC_MSG_WARN([actually a link to gccfss.])
                    AC_MSG_ERROR([Cannot continue])
@@ -181,13 +194,6 @@ AC_DEFUN([_OPAL_CHECK_COMPILER_VENDOR], [
           [OPAL_IF_IFELSE([defined(__HP_cc) || defined(__HP_aCC)],
                [opal_check_compiler_vendor_result="hp"])])
 
-    # IBM XL C/C++
-    AS_IF([test "$opal_check_compiler_vendor_result" = "unknown"],
-          [OPAL_IF_IFELSE([defined(__xlC__) || defined(__IBMC__) || defined(__IBMCPP__)],
-               [opal_check_compiler_vendor_result="ibm"],
-               [OPAL_IF_IFELSE([defined(_AIX) && !defined(__GNUC__)],
-                    [opal_check_compiler_vendor_result="ibm"])])])
-
     # KAI C++ (rest in peace)
     AS_IF([test "$opal_check_compiler_vendor_result" = "unknown"],
           [OPAL_IFDEF_IFELSE([__KCC],
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 902ed93e08c..31ab1f09631 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2013-2017 Intel, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2014-2017 Research Organization for Information Science
 #                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
-# Copyright (c) 2016      IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2016-2017 IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -84,6 +84,18 @@ AS_IF([test "$host" != "$target"],
       [AC_MSG_WARN([Cross-compile detected])
        AC_MSG_WARN([Cross-compiling is only partially supported])
        AC_MSG_WARN([Proceed at your own risk!])])
+# Check for architectures that we explicitly no longer support
+case "${host}" in
+    powerpc-*|powerpc64-*|ppc-*)
+        AC_MSG_ERROR([Big endian PPC is no longer supported.])
+        ;;
+esac
+case "${target}" in
+    powerpc-*|powerpc64-*|ppc-*)
+        AC_MSG_ERROR([Big endian PPC is no longer supported.])
+        ;;
+esac
+
 # AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS alters CFLAGS (e.g., adds -g -O2)
 OPAL_VAR_SCOPE_PUSH([CFLAGS_save])
 CFLAGS_save=$CFLAGS