diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 597a7f7..5b0a3c4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ build
 doc/html
 doc/latex
 bochsrc.txt
+config
diff --git a/config b/config
deleted file mode 100644
index b832187..0000000
--- a/config
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# vi: ft=make :
-export AMD64_TRACE_IRQ=1
diff --git a/defconfig b/defconfig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de8e114
--- /dev/null
+++ b/defconfig
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# vi: ft=make :
+
+# Compilation settings
+# amd64-specific
+export AMD64_TRACE_IRQ=1
+
+# Emulation
+export QEMU_SMP=4
+# export QEMU_MEM=512
diff --git a/sys/amd64/conf.mk b/sys/amd64/conf.mk
index 743b5fc..6c52e46 100644
--- a/sys/amd64/conf.mk
+++ b/sys/amd64/conf.mk
@@ -124,12 +124,13 @@ $(O)/sys/amd64/initrd.img: amd64_mkstage
 	@du -sh $@
 
 ### Debugging and emulation
+QEMU_SMP?=2
+QEMU_MEM?=512
 QEMU_BIN?=qemu-system-x86_64
 QEMU_OPTS?=-serial mon:stdio \
-		   -m 512 \
+		   -m $(QEMU_MEM) \
 		   --accel tcg,thread=multi \
-		   -cpu core2duo \
-		   -smp 2
+		   -smp $(QEMU_SMP)
 
 $(O)/sys/amd64/image.iso: $(O)/sys/amd64/kernel.elf \
 						  $(O)/sys/amd64/loader.elf \