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 type QEMU will use for a x86 or x86_64 guest. It emulates a PC with chipsets 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 machine type. |
| q35 | Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009) | This machine type emulates a PC with newer chipsets from circa 2009. It is faster, more efficient, and takes up less resources, but at a slight cost of stability. It is recommended for Windows 10 guests, as it makes it much faster along with CPU enlightenments. Note: Windows XP and below cannot be installed on this machine because the setup will crash with a BSOD (on Windows XP, the BSOD is ACPI related). |
| 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. This 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. |