QEMU 0.13 To Focus On New Features

This week there was the release of QEMU 0.12.2 (and the subsequent release of KVM-QEMU 0.12.2) with support for block migration, but this point release was mostly made up of small fixes and tweaks. IBM's Anthony Liguori though has begun making plans for the next major release of this open-source processor emulator. QEMU 0.13 will be the next big release and Anthony is hoping it will be completed by June and boast a large number of new features.

The features that are planned for this next release include gPXE support for virtio-blk, helper-based network setup, balloon driver statistics, fully supported QMP, live migration protocol support for sub-vendor versions, virtio-console, vhost-net, eepro100 fixes, TCG interpreter, an installer for Windows, PCI compliance, VEPA networking, and various other virtualization / emulator advancements.

The development discussion surrounding QEMU 0.13 and its features can be found on the qemu-devel list. QEMU 0.13 will have about a six-month development cycle with hopes of shipping the final release on the 1st of June.