diff --git a/package/protobuf/0001-Fix-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR-syntax-error.patch b/package/protobuf/0001-Fix-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR-syntax-error.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c271ea45d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/protobuf/0001-Fix-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR-syntax-error.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+From 50982f711de6ad58f6e0bef01a75d2b9cf35f5dc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: George Redivo <george.redivo@datacom.ind.br>
+Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 16:56:41 -0300
+Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Fix GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR syntax error
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
+
+It's not possible to define "#error" inside a define.
+It causes 'error: stray ‘#’ in program' compilation error.
+
+Now the define GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR is the error message
+and it's used along the code together "#error".
+---
+ src/google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops.h | 10 +++++-----
+ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/src/google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops.h b/src/google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops.h
+index b1336e3..a130b38 100644
+--- a/src/google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops.h
++++ b/src/google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops.h
+@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ Atomic64 Release_Load(volatile const Atomic64* ptr);
+ 
+ // Include our platform specific implementation.
+ #define GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR \
+-#error "Atomic operations are not supported on your platform"
++"Atomic operations are not supported on your platform"
+ 
+ // ThreadSanitizer, http://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThreadSanitizer.html.
+ #if defined(THREAD_SANITIZER)
+@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ Atomic64 Release_Load(volatile const Atomic64* ptr);
+ #if defined(GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ARCH_IA32) || defined(GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ARCH_X64)
+ #include <google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops_internals_x86_msvc.h>
+ #else
+-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
++#error GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
+ #endif
+ 
+ // Solaris
+@@ -203,15 +203,15 @@ GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
+ #if __has_extension(c_atomic)
+ #include <google/protobuf/stubs/atomicops_internals_generic_gcc.h>
+ #else
+-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
++#error GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
+ #endif
+ #else
+-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
++#error GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
+ #endif
+ 
+ // Unknown.
+ #else
+-GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
++#error GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_ATOMICOPS_ERROR
+ #endif
+ 
+ // On some platforms we need additional declarations to make AtomicWord
+-- 
+2.5.0
+
diff --git a/package/protobuf/0002-configure.ac-check-if-libatomic-is-needed.patch b/package/protobuf/0002-configure.ac-check-if-libatomic-is-needed.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a70a23e74e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/protobuf/0002-configure.ac-check-if-libatomic-is-needed.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+From f020fe05a20dfcd16cd7df833dcf3cdeef770538 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Carlos Santos <casantos@datacom.ind.br>
+Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2016 10:58:35 -0200
+Subject: [PATCH 2/2] configure.ac: check if libatomic is needed
+
+Compilation of protobuf for PowerPC and SPARC may fail due to missing
+references to __atomic_fetch_add_4 and __atomic_compare_exchange_4.
+
+The __atomic_*() intrinsics for all sizes are provided by libatomic when
+gcc is >= 4.8. This can be achieved by adding this to configure.ac:
+
+    AC_SEARCH_LIBS([__atomic_fetch_add_4], [atomic])
+
+Signed-off-by: Carlos Santos <casantos@datacom.ind.br>
+---
+ configure.ac | 2 ++
+ 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
+
+diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
+index c07067c..88d4a0d 100644
+--- a/configure.ac
++++ b/configure.ac
+@@ -139,6 +139,8 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL([USE_EXTERNAL_PROTOC], [test "$with_protoc" != "no"])
+ ACX_PTHREAD
+ AC_CXX_STL_HASH
+ 
++AC_SEARCH_LIBS([__atomic_load_4], [atomic])
++
+ case "$target_os" in
+   mingw* | cygwin* | win*)
+     ;;
+-- 
+2.5.0
+
diff --git a/package/protobuf/Config.in b/package/protobuf/Config.in
index 3d4320bfca..3215a075f1 100644
--- a/package/protobuf/Config.in
+++ b/package/protobuf/Config.in
@@ -1,5 +1,22 @@
 # See src/google/protobuf/stubs/platform_macros.h for supported archs.
-# PowerPC doesn't actually work.
+#
+# On PowerPC, the __atomic_*() built-ins for 1-byte, 2-byte and 4-byte
+# types are available built-in. However, the __atomic_*() built-ins for
+# 8-byte types is implemented via libatomic, so only available since gcc
+# 4.8.
+#
+# In Buildroot, to simplify things, we've decided to simply require gcc
+# 4.8 as soon as the architectures has at least one __atomic_*() built-in
+# variant that requires libatomic.
+#
+# Since protobuf most likely only uses the 1, 2 and 4-byte variants, it
+# *could* technically build with gcc 4.7. This is probably not a big deal,
+# and we can live with requiring gcc 4.8 on PowerPC to build protobuf. 
+#
+# The SPARC64 build fails due to a missing definition of Atomic64. This
+# has been fixed on the master branch but the build still breaks due to
+# undefined references to internal NoBarrier_Atomic*() functions.
+#
 # host-protobuf only builds on certain architectures
 config BR2_PACKAGE_PROTOBUF_ARCH_SUPPORTS
 	bool
@@ -7,6 +24,8 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_PROTOBUF_ARCH_SUPPORTS
 	default y if BR2_i386
 	default y if BR2_mipsel
 	default y if BR2_x86_64
+	default y if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_ATOMIC
+	depends on !BR2_sparc64 # missing definition of Atomic64
 	depends on BR2_HOSTARCH = "x86_64" || BR2_HOSTARCH = "x86"
 
 config BR2_PACKAGE_PROTOBUF