The project QEMU announced the availability of version 10.2.0, An update that focuses on optimizing the performance of the main event loop, improving live migration capabilities, and expanding hardware support for ARM, RISC-V, and HPPA architectures.
For those who are unaware of QEMU, they should know that it isallows you to run a program created for a hardware platform on a system with aa completely different architecture.
Main novelties of QEMU 10.2.0
One of the important changes in this new version is the migration of the main QEMU event loop. On host systems that support it (primarily modern Linux systems), QEMU now uses the asynchronous I/O interface io_uring. This It promises to reduce system overload and improve latency. in intensive input/output operations.
Besides that, A new live migration mode called cpr-exec has been introduced. This mode is designed to drastically reduce resource consumption during virtual machine (VM) updates. Its main advantage lies in the ability to reuse existing states and connections, allowing the VM to persist or be updated with minimal disruption, preserving file descriptors and memory.
Architecture News
ARM and aarch64
The emulator ARM It adds new emulated CPU architectural features:
- FEAT_SCTLR2
- FEAT_TCR2
- CSSC_FUNCTION
- FEAT_LSE128
- FEAT_ATS1A
- FUNCTION_RME_GPC2
- FEAT_AIE
- FEAT_MEC
- FEAT_GCS
At the CPU level, The emulation of multiple technical extensions has been implemented (FEAT_SCTLR2, FEAT_TCR2, FEAT_LSE128, among others), which allows developers to test software that depends on the latest instructions in the ARM set.
RISC-V and PowerPC
- RISC-V: The OpenSBI (Open Supervisor Binary Interface) has been updated to version 1.7 and the HMP MonitorDef API has been implemented.
- PowerPC: Compatibility with PowerNV11 and PPE42 CPUs has been added. For pSeries systems, the FADUMP (Firmware Assisted Dump) mechanism has been implemented, which is crucial for post-mortem analysis following system failures.
HPPA and x86
At HPPA, thanks to the work done during Google Summer of Code, The emulation of the HP 715/64 workstation has been improved., including the NCR 53c710 SCSI controller and the HP LASI I/O controller.
x86 introduces support for a new accelerator, MSHVThis allows you to create virtual machines from a Hyper-V guest without incurring the performance penalty of traditional nested virtualization. Additionally, the "big QEMU lock" (BQL) for the HPET appliance has been removed.
Storage and File Systems
the back end 9pfs, used to share file systems between the host and the guest efficiently, It has been updated to support FreeBSD as a host, Excellent news for BSD system users.
Regarding block devices, RPMB (Replay Protected Memory Block) emulation has been added for eMMC devices, and block boundaries detected through QMP commands have been exposed, improving visibility for management tools.
Security and Cryptography
El The cryptographic subsystem now supports uploading multiple x509 certificate + key identitiesThis allows the use of parallel certificates with different algorithms, facilitating a smooth transition to new cryptographic standards.
Furthermore, The project's security policy has been updated. It is clarified that the definition of "security errors" in the context of virtualization applies strictly to specific machine types and supported configurations, which are now explicitly listed to avoid ambiguity.
Rust and Technical Changes
El Experimental support for Rust continues to progress. The minimum required version is now Rust 1.83. Although its use is still restricted to development, the PL011 and HPET devices implemented in Rust have already achieved feature parity with their C counterparts.
Deleted or obsolete items:
- The command-line option -old-param has been removed.
- The ARM pxa CPU family has been permanently discontinued.
- The wavcapture, stopcapture, and info capture commands have been marked as obsolete.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about this, you can find the details in the following link