docs/about/index.rst

   1 ----------
   2 About QEMU
   3 ----------
   4
   5 QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.
   6
   7 QEMU can be used in several different ways. The most common is for
   8 :ref:`System Emulation`, where it provides a virtual model of an
   9 entire machine (CPU, memory and emulated devices) to run a guest OS.
  10 In this mode the CPU may be fully emulated, or it may work with a
  11 hypervisor such as KVM, Xen, Hax or Hypervisor.Framework to allow the
  12 guest to run directly on the host CPU.
  13
  14 The second supported way to use QEMU is :ref:`User Mode Emulation`,
  15 where QEMU can launch processes compiled for one CPU on another CPU.
  16 In this mode the CPU is always emulated.
  17
  18 QEMU also provides a number of standalone :ref:`command line
  19 utilities<Tools>`, such as the ``qemu-img`` disk image utility that
  20 allows 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