ARM: CORTEX M, PRIMASK does not disable interrupts qemu version 0.15.1 but the same code is in qemu 1.0 "CPSID I" does not disable interrupts for CORTEX M3 if (interrupt_request & CPU_INTERRUPT_HARD && ((IS_M(env) && env->regs[15] < 0xfffffff0) || !(env->uncached_cpsr & CPSR_I))) { env->exception_index = EXCP_IRQ; do_interrupt(env); next_tb = 0; } do_interrupt() will be executed even if (env->uncached_cpsr & CPSR_I) == 1 , disable interrupt bit set. then changed to: if (interrupt_request & CPU_INTERRUPT_HARD && !(env->uncached_cpsr & CPSR_I) && (IS_M(env) ? env->regs[15] < 0xfffffff0: 1) ) { env->exception_index = EXCP_IRQ; do_interrupt(env); next_tb = 0; } works