QEMU Supported Architectures

About 942 wordsAbout 3 min

2026-03-14

Emulation Modes per Architecture

Each QEMU target comes in two flavors:

Flavor	Binary	What it emulates
Full-system (`softmmu`)	`qemu-system-<arch>`	Full machine: CPU + RAM + peripherals + devices
User-mode	`qemu-<arch>`	CPU only; syscalls forwarded to host kernel

Not all architectures support both modes. Most embedded workflows use softmmu.

Architectures Reference for Embedded Development

ARM 32-bit (`qemu-system-arm`)

The most important target for embedded Linux and bare-metal MCU development.

Key machines (-M <name>):

Machine	Description	Embedded Use
`virt`	Generic ARM virt platform (recommended for new projects)	Cortex-A7/A15/A53 with GICv2/v3, VirtIO, PCI
`versatilepb`	ARM Versatile Platform Baseboard (Cortex-A8)	Legacy; good for teaching
`realview-pb-a8`	RealView Platform Baseboard with Cortex-A8	ARM Linux kernel testing
`mps2-an385`	ARM MPS2 with Cortex-M3	Bare-metal Cortex-M3
`mps2-an386`	ARM MPS2 with Cortex-M4	Bare-metal Cortex-M4
`mps2-an500`	ARM MPS2 with Cortex-M7	Bare-metal Cortex-M7
`mps2-an505`	ARM MPS2 with Cortex-M33 (TrustZone)	Bare-metal Cortex-M33
`netduino-plus-2`	Netduino+ 2 (STM32F405, Cortex-M4)	STM32-class MCU firmware
`stm32vldiscovery`	STM32VL Discovery (STM32F100, Cortex-M3)	STM32 bare-metal
`lm3s6965evb`	LM3S6965 Eval Board (Cortex-M3)	FreeRTOS demo target
`connex`	Sharp LH7A400 (ARM922T)	Legacy

# List all available ARM machines:
qemu-system-arm -M help

# List CPUs for a machine:
qemu-system-arm -M virt -cpu help

AArch64 (`qemu-system-aarch64`)

The primary target for modern 64-bit embedded Linux (Cortex-A55, A72, A78 class SoCs).

Machine	Description
`virt`	Most useful: generic SBSA-compatible machine, GICv3, PCIe, VirtIO
`cortex-a57-a53`	Big.LITTLE topology
`raspi3ap`	Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ (BCM2837, 4x Cortex-A53)
`raspi4b`	Raspberry Pi 4B (BCM2711, 4x Cortex-A72)
`sbsa-ref`	SBSA Reference platform (server-class standardized)
`xlnx-versal-virt`	Xilinx Versal (Cortex-A72+R5+AI Engine)
`xlnx-zcu102`	Xilinx ZCU102 (Zynq UltraScale+)
`fsl-imx8mp-evk`	NXP i.MX8M Plus EVK

# The virt machine with explicit CPU:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu cortex-a72 \
  -m 1G -nographic \
  -kernel Image -append "console=ttyAMA0" -initrd initramfs.cpio.gz

# With device tree:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu cortex-a57 \
  -kernel Image -dtb virt.dtb -drive file=rootfs.ext4,format=raw,if=virtio

RISC-V (`qemu-system-riscv32`, `qemu-system-riscv64`)

Machine	Description
`virt`	Generic RISC-V virt (CLINT, PLIC, VirtIO) — most useful
`sifive_u`	SiFive U540/U500 SoC
`sifive_e`	SiFive E31/E51 microcontroller (32-bit)
`spike`	Spike RISC-V reference ISA simulator
`microchip-icicle-kit`	Microchip PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit

# Boot Linux on RISC-V 64:
qemu-system-riscv64 -M virt -cpu rv64 \
  -kernel fw_jump.elf \
  -device loader,file=Image,addr=0x80200000 \
  -append "root=/dev/vda console=ttyS0" \
  -drive file=rootfs.ext4,if=virtio,format=raw

x86 / x86_64 (`qemu-system-x86_64`)

Used when the target is x86, or for UEFI/BIOS development.

Machine	Description
`pc`	Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX3, legacy)
`q35`	Modern PC chipset (Q35 + ICH9, PCIe)
`microvm`	Minimal: no PCI bus, fast boot, paravirt-only

PowerPC (`qemu-system-ppc`, `qemu-system-ppc64`)

Machine	Use
`40p`	PowerPC Reference Platform
`g3beige`	Power Mac G3
`ppce500`	Freescale e500 (still used in networking)
`bamboo`	AMCC 440EP evaluation

MIPS (`qemu-system-mips`, `mipsel`, `mips64`, `mips64el`)

Machine	Use
`malta`	MIPS Malta reference board
`boston`	Baikal-T1 / MIPS I6400

Xtensa (`qemu-system-xtensa`)

Used for ESP32 bare-metal testing (requires ESP-specific QEMU build, not upstream).

CPU Selection

Within a machine, you can often select a specific CPU core:

# AArch64 CPU options:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu cortex-a72
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu cortex-a55
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu max        # Best emulated: all features enabled

# With feature flags:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu cortex-a72,+sve,sve256=on

# List all CPUs for a given machine/arch:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt -cpu help

What Is NOT in Upstream QEMU

Common misconceptions — these machines exist only in unofficial forks:

stm32-p103 — only in beckus/qemu_stm32, not upstream
ESP32 — only in Espressif's fork, not upstream
Nordic nRF52 — not in upstream QEMU
Raspberry Pi (full BCM2835) — raspi2b/raspi3ap exist in upstream but with incomplete peripheral support

For STM32 development with better peripheral fidelity, use Renode instead of QEMU.

Machine Versioning

QEMU machines are versioned to preserve migration compatibility. When a machine type changes, the old behavior is kept under a versioned alias:

qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt          # Latest version of virt machine
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt-8.0     # Frozen at QEMU 8.0 behavior
qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt-9.1     # Frozen at QEMU 9.1 behavior

# See all machine versions:
qemu-system-aarch64 -M help | grep virt