xref: /qemu/docs/about/index.rst (revision a9c17e9a21af9c4bf9c08dedf0f0df4a6566cf52)
106905f64SPaolo Bonzini----------
2f3478392SPeter MaydellAbout QEMU
306905f64SPaolo Bonzini----------
4f3478392SPeter Maydell
54a43fa3aSPeter MaydellQEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.
64a43fa3aSPeter Maydell
74a43fa3aSPeter MaydellQEMU can be used in several different ways. The most common is for
89d195efdSAlex Bennée:ref:`System Emulation`, where it provides a virtual model of an
94a43fa3aSPeter Maydellentire machine (CPU, memory and emulated devices) to run a guest OS.
109d195efdSAlex BennéeIn this mode the CPU may be fully emulated, or it may work with a
11*b91b0fc1SPhilippe Mathieu-Daudéhypervisor such as KVM, Xen or Hypervisor.Framework to allow the
129d195efdSAlex Bennéeguest to run directly on the host CPU.
134a43fa3aSPeter Maydell
149d195efdSAlex BennéeThe second supported way to use QEMU is :ref:`User Mode Emulation`,
154a43fa3aSPeter Maydellwhere QEMU can launch processes compiled for one CPU on another CPU.
164a43fa3aSPeter MaydellIn this mode the CPU is always emulated.
174a43fa3aSPeter Maydell
189d195efdSAlex BennéeQEMU also provides a number of standalone :ref:`command line
199d195efdSAlex Bennéeutilities<Tools>`, such as the ``qemu-img`` disk image utility that
209d195efdSAlex Bennéeallows you to create, convert and modify disk images.
214a43fa3aSPeter Maydell
22f3478392SPeter Maydell.. toctree::
23f3478392SPeter Maydell   :maxdepth: 2
24f3478392SPeter Maydell
25f3478392SPeter Maydell   build-platforms
26a0a6754bSAlex Bennée   emulation
27f3478392SPeter Maydell   deprecated
28f3478392SPeter Maydell   removed-features
29f3478392SPeter Maydell   license
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