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. |
| q35 | 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. |
AVR
CRIS
| Model | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| axis-dev88 | AXIS Devboard 88 | AXIS Dev88 embedded system |
| none | None | Empty machine that only has the QEMU Monitor. |
ColdFire
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) | A ibm pSeries LPAR (basically what IBM chooses to call a VM for some reason) |
| 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. |