14 DAY TRIAL // The final version of QEMU 2.3.0, an open source machine emulator and virtualizer software for GNU/Linux operating systems, was announced today, April 27, by the QEMU development team, through Michael Roth.
Version 2.3.0 is an important update to the well-known QEMU application, as it introduces support for 32-bit KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) guests on 64-bit ARM hosts, and support for running KVM under the Valgrind debugging and profiling software.
Moreover, there's support for the ioreq-server API (Application Programming Interface) for Xen, initial support for transactional memory extensions in PowerPC (PPC) guests, as well as support for automatic guest device unplug functionality when passthrough devices are released from the VFIO (Virtual Function I/O) host driver.
"I'd like to announce the availability of the QEMU 2.3.0 release. This release contains 1900+ commits from 184 authors," says Michael Roth on behalf of the QEMU development team. "The full list of changes are available at: http://wiki.qemu.org/ChangeLog/2.3."
QEMU 2.3.0 supports IvyBridge CPU model for x86 guests
In addition to the new features mentioned above, QEMU 2.3.0 supports IvyBridge CPU model for x86 guests, improves VGA support for PowerPC (PPC) Little-Endian guests, and adds PCI bus support for s390x guests.
The 5KEf MIPS64r2, 5KEc, M14Kc MIPS32r2, and M14K microMIPS CPU models are now supported for MIPS guests, VNC support for multiseat has been improved, as well as the performance of the user interface per for the GTK+, Spice, VNC, and SDL technologies.
Last but not least, QEMU 2.3.0 brings performance improvements for virtio-blk emulation, such as disk read merging and asynchronous SCSI request handling. The QEMU Guest Agent has been improved as well to support file operations in Windows guests. Download QEMU 2.3.0 right now via Softpedia or directly from the project's website.