I downloaded a linux elf binary file and tried to run it on my linux distribution, Yellow Dog, but get the error message cannot execute binary file.

The file is ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, statically linked, and stripped.

Is the problem because it's for Intel and not PPC? If so, is there any way I can get this program to run at all on PPC? Thanks.

Do you have the ELF libraries installed ? I'm not totally familiar with Yellow Dog and ELF binaries but I do know you should have the lib's installed in order to run most likely.

Is it executable? Check with ls -la.

Yeah, make sure you have support for ELF executables. I believe it's a configuration option in the kernel. If it's statically linked, then having ELF library support is not necessary as all the support code is included in the executable.

Beyond that, a most definite yes about the architecture difference. A program compiled for an Intel-based processor will NOT run on a PPC without some sort of help. It's the same reason why you download iso files of linux distributions for specific architectures; you can't install an i386 distribution on a PPC.

You have a handful of options (that I'm aware of):
1) Get an emulator for an i386 processor to run under your PPC
2) Get the source and compile it yourself
3) if you can only get the source on an i386, look at cross-compiling. Cross-compiling lets one architecture create an executable for another (i.e. an Intel processor creates an executable for the PPC).

The reason why an i386 executable won't run on a PPC is pretty simple: the command/instruction formats are not identical. For instance, a simple ADD instruction for a PPC might be interpreted as a DIVIDE operation for the i386.