Use of dpkg to install powerpc .deb on x86 host

[Sergei Poselenov <sposelenov@emcraft.com>]

Hello all,

We are developing a design for a Debian-based SDK distribution,
targetting embedded systems.

The SDK will be installed on a x86 host, using the dpkg utility.
to install a set of binary packages, part of them for different
architecture (powerpc) (the so-called target packages).
By design, the SDK should be able to be installed to arbitrary
directory, and should not interact with the host' /var/lib/dpkg
database.
We are thinking of "dpkg --root=<dir>", to install target-depended
packages to. Will this work?

I guess, dpkg will complain about wrong architecture of the powerpc
packages? Can this be worked around with --force-architecture? Any
other ways?

Another question - when installing/removig the packages for different
architecture, the scripts should not be allowed to be executed - 
being chrooted to dir pointed to with "--root=" the execution would try
to execute powerpc binaries on x86 host.
Is it possible to disable scripts processing in dpkg?

Thanks in advance.
(Could you please reply me directly - I'm a Debian newbie and not
(yet) subscribed to this mailing list.)

Regards,
Sergei