(no subject)

I'm trying to fix some of the AX25 code in the 2.6 kernel and traced down
a problem to the use of a char var which was being assigned
the value of -1. On x86 when the var was compared to -1 it succeded but
on PPC it failed. So I tried a simple test:

main()
{
char atest;
atest=-1;
printf("%i,%X\n",atest,atest);
}

With GCC 3.3.5 on 2.6.14-rc1 x86 I get:
./atest
-1,FFFFFFFF

With GCC 3.3.5 on 2.6.14-rc1 PPC I get:
./atest
255,FF

If I change the declaration of atest to a signed char on PPC I get the
same result as x86.

Does this mean the char in x86 is signed and in PPC it's unsigned?
Has it always been thus?