Bochs

Bochs

Bochs 2.4.6 with its "wx" graphical interface (wx display library) on Debian 7 Linux
Original author(s)	Kevin Lawton[1][2]
Developer(s)	Community based; owned by Mandriva
Initial release	1994; 30 years ago (1994)[3]
Stable release	2.8[4]  / 10 March 2024
Repository	github.com/bochs-emu/Bochs
Written in	C++
Operating system	Linux, BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin OS, macOS), Windows, Windows CE along with its derivatives, OS/2, BeOS, MorphOS, AmigaOS, Android OS, PlayStation 2[5]
Platform	IA-32, x64
Available in	English
Type	Emulator
License	GNU Lesser General Public License
Website	bochs.sourceforge.io

Bochs (pronounced "box") is a portable IA-32 and x86-64 IBM PC compatible emulator and debugger mostly written in C++ and distributed as free software under the GNU Lesser General Public License. It supports emulation of the processor(s) (including protected mode), memory, disks, display, Ethernet, BIOS and common hardware peripherals of PCs.

Many guest operating systems can be run using the emulator including DOS, several versions of Linux, Xenix, Microsoft Windows, BSDs and Rhapsody OS (precursor of Mac OS X Public Beta). Bochs runs on many host operating systems, including Android OS, Linux, macOS, PlayStation 2, Windows, and Windows CE along with its derivatives.

Bochs is mostly used for operating system development (when an emulated operating system crashes, it does not crash the host operating system, so the emulated OS can be debugged) and to run other guest operating systems inside already running host operating systems. It can also be used to run older software — such as PC games — which will not run on non-compatible, or too fast computers.