Qemu 8.1 has been released, presenting the latest developments in the emulator project. Qemu allows the execution of programs designed for one hardware platform to be run on a system with a different architecture. This enables, for example, running ARM programs on an X86-compatible PC. In virtualization mode, Qemu provides code execution performance comparable to the hardware system, achieved through direct instruction implementation on the CPU and the use of the Xen hypervisor or the KVM module (source).
Originally created by Fabrice Bellard, Qemu was developed to enable the launch of X86 executable Linux files on architectures other than X86. Over the years, it has expanded to support full emulation for 14 hardware architectures and emulate over 400 hardware devices. The preparation of version 8.1 involved incorporating more than 2900 changes contributed by 250 developers (source).
The key improvements introduced in Qemu 8.1 include:
- Enhanced and stabilized support for Live Migration in VFIO (Virtual Function I/O), allowing the transfer of VFIO devices while a virtual machine is running. Live migration in VFIO is no longer classified as an experimental feature.
- A new sound backend (“-uudiodev pipewire”) is now available, working with the Pipewire multimedia server.
- Expanded capabilities in Virtio modules, such as adding asymmetric encryption support in Cryptodev-Vhost-User, emulation of zoned devices in Virtio-BLK, support for hot shutdown and migration in “X-AGNORE-SHARED” mode in Virtio-Mem, and introduction of a new VHOST-User device for Virtio SCMI.
- The GTK-based user interface now supports multi-stroke input.
- Instructions for accelerating AES encryption provided by the host system’s processor are now utilized in ARM, PowerPC, and RISC-V architecture emulators.
- New QMP commands have been introduced for substituting events related to CXL, DRAM, and memory modules in the PCIE bus emulator.
- X86 architecture emulator now supports Intel Xeon processors based on the Granite Rapids microarchitecture and employs Smbios 3.0 format structures by default.