diff --git a/src/os/signal/signal_test.go b/src/os/signal/signal_test.go
index 4c19281e91..cea68742d2 100644
--- a/src/os/signal/signal_test.go
+++ b/src/os/signal/signal_test.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import (
 	"runtime"
 	"runtime/trace"
 	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"syscall"
 	"testing"
@@ -47,6 +48,13 @@ func init() {
 		//
 		// See https://golang.org/issue/33174.
 		settleTime = 11 * time.Second
+	} else if runtime.GOOS == "linux" && strings.HasPrefix(runtime.GOARCH, "ppc64") {
+		// Older linux kernels seem to have some hiccups delivering the signal
+		// in a timely manner on ppc64 and ppc64le. When running on a
+		// ppc64le/ubuntu 16.04/linux 4.4 host the time can vary quite
+		// substantially even on a idle system. 5 seconds is twice any value
+		// observed when running 10000 tests on such a system.
+		settleTime = 5 * time.Second
 	} else if s := os.Getenv("GO_TEST_TIMEOUT_SCALE"); s != "" {
 		if scale, err := strconv.Atoi(s); err == nil {
 			settleTime *= time.Duration(scale)