Re: [Qemu-devel] qemu-system-i386 vs qemu-system-x86_64 ?

[Blue Swirl]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 7:39 AM, Michael Tokarev <address@hidden> wrote:
> What's the difference between the two except that the
> latter adds some more instructions (actually whole new
> subsytem) to the former?  Why do we need -i386, what
> -x86_64 does not do which does -i386?

i386 should not allow executing x86_64 code or using other 64 bit
features but raise exceptions. 64 bit CPU models should not be
available to i386 emulator. Physical memory is limited to PAE maximum
for i386.

We could also let x86_64 diverge from i386 and remove legacy devices
to emulate a modern legacy free system while keeping i386 closer to
1990s machines, though this would be mainly a linkage issue.

>
> Thanks,
>
> /mjt
>