QEMU/Devices/Machines

QEMU can emulate several types of machines. A machine is specified by adding the -M <machine model> to QEMU. Do not use a lowercase m because that is used to specify the amount of memory that will be given to the virtual machine.

How to set a machine

You can set a machine by doing the following:

qemu-system-(arch) -M (machine)

QEMU can emulate a lot of machines. This page will try and document most of them but it's probably best to do -M ? to QEMU and see whats available.

Machines

This list is incomplete.

i386/x86_64

Model	Name	Description
pc	Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)	This is the default machine. This machine emulates a PC from circa 1996, although this doesn't hinder its ability to run newer operating systems or emulate newer CPUs. If you want more stability, it is recommended to use this.
pc	Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009)	This is another machine in QEMU which emulates a PC from circa 2009. This machine is faster and more efficient, and takes up less resources but at a slight cost of stability. This is recommended for Windows 10 guests, as it makes it much faster. Note: Windows XP and below cannot be installed on this machine because the setup will crash with a BSOD.
microvm	Micro VM	The Micro VM is designed to be a minimalist PC which does not have a PCI bus or ACPI. It is inspired by the Firecracker software developed by Amazon Web Services.
isapc	ISA-only PC	This PC emulates a "retro" style PC which does not have a PCI bus. Obviously, sound cards, network cards, etc that use the PCI bus will not work in this.
xenfv	Xen Fully-virtualized PC. This machine has been deprecated and is absent from recent QEMU versions.
xenpv	Xen Para-virtualized PC. his machine has been deprecated and is absent from recent QEMU versions.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

Aarch64

Model	Name	Description
akita	Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 PDA (PXA270)	The Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 was a PDA very popular in Japan during the 1990s. The SL-C1000 came bundled with 64 MB of SDRAM, a 128 MB Flash ROM, and an Intel XScale CPU. On QEMU's emulation it is capable of running Linux.
ast2500-evb	ASPEED AST2500 EVB (ARM1176)	ASPEED AST2500 EVB ARM board
ast2600-evb	ASPEED AST2600 EVB (Cortex-A7)	ASPEED AST2600 EVB ARM board
borozi	Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100 PDA (S3C2410A, ARM920T)	Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100 PDA from June 2005. It comes with 128 MB of internal flash memory, 64 MB of SDRAM and a Intel XScale PXA270 CPU.
canon-a1100	Canon PowerShot A1100 IS	The Canon PowerShot A1100IS is a digital camera released in 2009.
cheetah	Palm Tungsten E (OMAP310)	The Palm Tungsten E was a Palm OS-based PDA from Palm, Inc released in October 2003. It has 32 MB of memory and a Texas Instruments OMAP310 ARM processor. It runs Palm OS 5.2.1.
collie	Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA (SA-1110)	Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA from November 2002. It comes with 16 MB of flash ROM, 64 MB of SDRAM, and a Intel StrongARM SA-1110 CPU.
connex	Gumstix Connex (PXA255)	Gumstix Connex board from 2005. 16 MB flash memory
cubieboard	CubieTech Cubieboard	A CubieTech Cubieboard from 2012, featuring a Cortex CPU.
emcraft-sf2	SmartFusion2 SOM kit from Emcraft (M2S010)
highbank	Calxeda Highbank (ECX-1000)
imx25-pdk	ARM i.MX25 PDK board (ARM926)
integratorcp	ARM Intergrator/CP (ARM1136)	The Integrator/CP is a compact development platform.
kzm	ARM KZM Emulation Baseboard (ARM1136)
lm3s6965evb	Stellaris® LM3S6965	The Stellaris LM3S6965 microcontroller is based on the ARM Cortex M3 controller core. It operates at 50 Mhz and comes with 256 kB of flash memory and 64 kB SRAM.
LM3S811EVB	Stellaris® LM3S811	The Stellaris LM3S811 microcontroller is based on the ARM Cortex M3 controller core. It operates at 50 Mhz and comes with 64 kB of flash memory and 8 kB SRAM.
raspi2	Raspberry Pi 2	Raspberry Pi 2 board from February 2015.
raspi3	Raspberry Pi 3	Raspberry Pi 3 board from February 2016.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

Alpha

Model	Name	Description
clipper	Alpha DP264/CLIPPER	A DEC Alpha DP264 ("CLIPPER") board.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

ARM

Model	Name	Description
raspi2	Raspberry Pi 2	Raspberry Pi 2 board
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

CRIS

Model	Name	Description
axis-dev88	AXIS Devboard 88	AXIS Dev88 embedded system
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

HPPA

Model	Name	Description
hppa	HPPA Generic	Generic HPPA machine
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

LatticeMico32

Model	Name	Description
lm32-evr	LatticeMico32 EVR32
milkymist	Milkymist One	Milkymist One video synthesizer machine
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

Motorola 68k

Model	Name	Description
mcf5208evb	MCF5208EVB
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

MIPS

Model	Name	Description
malta	MIPS Malta Core LV	MIPS Malta board
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

MIPS64

Model	Name	Description
magnum	MIPS Magnum	MIPS Magnum R4000 machine from April 1992. It used ARC firmware on the Jazz platform. This machine can run Windows NT 3.5 - 4.0 SP1 and some Linux distributions.
malta	MIPS Malta Core LV	MIPS Malta board
pica61	Acer Pica 61	Acer PICA-61 machine from circa 1993. It used ARC firmware on the Jazz platform, similar to the MIPS Magnum line of workstations.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

MIPS64el

Model	Name	Description
boston	MIPS Boston	Imagination Technologies MIPS Boston development board.
magnum	MIPS Magnum	MIPS Magnum R4000 machine from April 1992. It used ARC firmware on the Jazz platform. This machine can run Windows NT 3.5 - 4.0 SP1 and some Linux distributions.
malta	MIPS Malta Core LV	MIPS Malta board
pica61	Acer Pica 61	Acer PICA-61 machine from circa 1993. It used ARC firmware on the Jazz platform, similar to the MIPS Magnum line of workstations.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

MIPSel

Model	Name	Description
malta	MIPS Malta Core LV	MIPS Malta board
speedport	T-Com Speedport	T-Com Speedport board
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

Moxie

Model	Name	Description
moxiesim	Moxie simulator platform	Moxie simulator board
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

Nios2

Model	Name	Description
10m50-ghrd	Altera 10M50 GHRD Nios II design	10m50 dev board
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

OR1K/OpenRISC 1000

Model	Name	Description
or1k-sim	OR1K Simulation Board
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

PowerPC

Model	Name	Description
g3beige	Beige Power Mac G3	A Beige Power Mac G3 machine from 1997. It is capable of running Mac OS X 10.2 and earlier.
mac99	Sawtooth Power Mac G4	A Sawtooth Power Mac G4 machine from 1999. It is capable of running Mac OS 9.0 to Mac OS X 10.5.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

PowerPC 64

Model	Name	Description
g3beige	Beige Power Mac G3	A Beige Power Mac G3 machine from 1997. It is capable of running Mac OS X 10.2 and earlier.
mac99	Sawtooth Power Mac G4	A Sawtooth Power Mac G4 machine from 1999. It is capable of running Mac OS 9.0 to Mac OS X 10.5.
pseries-2.12	pSeries Logical Partition (PAPR compliant)
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

RISC-V 32

Model	Name	Description
spike_v1.10	RISC-V Spike Board (Privileged ISA)
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

SuperH

Model	Name	Description
shix	shix card
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

System/390

Model	Name	Description
s390-ccw-virtio	VirtIO-ccw based S390 machine v2.12
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

SPARC

Model	Name	Description
SPARCBook	SPARCBook (sun4m)	SPARCBooks were a series of SPARC-based laptops released circa 1992 by Tadpole Computers.
SS-4	SPARCstation 4 (sun4m)	The SPARCstation 4 is a Sun Microsystems workstation introduced in 1995 to provide a cheaper alternative to the SPARCstation 5.
SS-5	SPARCstation 5 (sun4m)	The SPARCstation 5 is a Sun Microsystems workstation released in March 1994. Capable of running Solaris 1 - 8, most BSD systems ported to SPARC, and most Linux distributions ported to SPARC.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

SPARC64

Model	Name	Description
niagra	Niagara (sun4v)	UltraSPARC T1-like machine from 2005. Capable of booting Solaris 10 and HelenOS
sun4u	sun4u	Sun4u based machine
sun4v	sun4v	Sun4v based machine
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

TriCore

Model	Name	Description
tricore_testboard	TriCore Testboard	A TriCore Test board.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.

UniCore32

Model	Name	Description
tricore_testboard	PKUnity Version-3	PKUnity Version-3 based on UniCore32.
none	None	Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor.