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.
|