xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/about/index.rst (revision 05caa062)
1----------
2About QEMU
3----------
4
5QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.
6
7QEMU can be used in several different ways. The most common is for
8:ref:`System Emulation`, where it provides a virtual model of an
9entire machine (CPU, memory and emulated devices) to run a guest OS.
10In this mode the CPU may be fully emulated, or it may work with a
11hypervisor such as KVM, Xen or Hypervisor.Framework to allow the
12guest to run directly on the host CPU.
13
14The second supported way to use QEMU is :ref:`User Mode Emulation`,
15where QEMU can launch processes compiled for one CPU on another CPU.
16In this mode the CPU is always emulated.
17
18QEMU also provides a number of standalone :ref:`command line
19utilities<Tools>`, such as the ``qemu-img`` disk image utility that
20allows you to create, convert and modify disk images.
21
22.. toctree::
23   :maxdepth: 2
24
25   build-platforms
26   emulation
27   deprecated
28   removed-features
29   license
30