diff --git a/configure b/configure
index d68f862..98b0a5f 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@ trace_backend="nop"
 trace_file="trace"
 spice=""
 rbd=""
+fake_machine="no"
 
 # parse CC options first
 for opt do
@@ -719,6 +720,10 @@ for opt do
   ;;
   --enable-rbd) rbd="yes"
   ;;
+  --disable-fake-machine) fake_machine="no"
+  ;;
+  --enable-fake-machine) fake_machine="yes"
+  ;;
   *) echo "ERROR: unknown option $opt"; show_help="yes"
   ;;
   esac
@@ -913,6 +918,8 @@ echo "                           Default:trace-<pid>"
 echo "  --disable-spice          disable spice"
 echo "  --enable-spice           enable spice"
 echo "  --enable-rbd             enable building the rados block device (rbd)"
+echo "  --disable-fake-machine   disable -fake-machine option"
+echo "  --enable-fake-machine    enable -fake-machine option"
 echo ""
 echo "NOTE: The object files are built at the place where configure is launched"
 exit 1
@@ -2455,6 +2462,7 @@ echo "Trace output file $trace_file-<pid>"
 echo "spice support     $spice"
 echo "rbd support       $rbd"
 echo "xfsctl support    $xfs"
+echo "-fake-machine     $fake_machine"
 
 if test $sdl_too_old = "yes"; then
 echo "-> Your SDL version is too old - please upgrade to have SDL support"
@@ -2727,6 +2735,10 @@ if test "$spice" = "yes" ; then
   echo "CONFIG_SPICE=y" >> $config_host_mak
 fi
 
+if test $fake_machine = "yes" ; then
+  echo "CONFIG_FAKE_MACHINE=y" >> $config_host_mak
+fi
+
 # XXX: suppress that
 if [ "$bsd" = "yes" ] ; then
   echo "CONFIG_BSD=y" >> $config_host_mak
diff --git a/cpu-exec.c b/cpu-exec.c
index 8c9fb8b..cd1259a 100644
--- a/cpu-exec.c
+++ b/cpu-exec.c
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ int cpu_exec(CPUState *env1)
     uint8_t *tc_ptr;
     unsigned long next_tb;
 
-    if (cpu_halted(env1) == EXCP_HALTED)
+    if (fake_machine || cpu_halted(env1) == EXCP_HALTED)
         return EXCP_HALTED;
 
     cpu_single_env = env1;
diff --git a/cpus.c b/cpus.c
index 0309189..91e708f 100644
--- a/cpus.c
+++ b/cpus.c
@@ -128,6 +128,9 @@ static int cpu_can_run(CPUState *env)
 
 static int cpu_has_work(CPUState *env)
 {
+    if (fake_machine) {
+        return 0;
+    }
     if (env->stop)
         return 1;
     if (env->queued_work_first)
diff --git a/hw/pc.c b/hw/pc.c
index fface7d..809f53e 100644
--- a/hw/pc.c
+++ b/hw/pc.c
@@ -993,18 +993,28 @@ void pc_memory_init(ram_addr_t ram_size,
     linux_boot = (kernel_filename != NULL);
 
     /* allocate RAM */
-    ram_addr = qemu_ram_alloc(NULL, "pc.ram",
-                              below_4g_mem_size + above_4g_mem_size);
-    cpu_register_physical_memory(0, 0xa0000, ram_addr);
-    cpu_register_physical_memory(0x100000,
-                 below_4g_mem_size - 0x100000,
-                 ram_addr + 0x100000);
+    if (fake_machine) {
+        /* If user boots with -m 1000 We don't actually want to
+         * allocate a GB of RAM, so lets force all RAM allocs to one
+         * page to keep our memory footprint nice and low.
+         *
+         * TODO try to use -m 1k instead
+         */
+        ram_addr = qemu_ram_alloc(NULL, "pc.ram", 1);
+    } else {
+        ram_addr = qemu_ram_alloc(NULL, "pc.ram",
+                                  below_4g_mem_size + above_4g_mem_size);
+        cpu_register_physical_memory(0, 0xa0000, ram_addr);
+        cpu_register_physical_memory(0x100000,
+                                     below_4g_mem_size - 0x100000,
+                                     ram_addr + 0x100000);
 #if TARGET_PHYS_ADDR_BITS > 32
-    if (above_4g_mem_size > 0) {
-        cpu_register_physical_memory(0x100000000ULL, above_4g_mem_size,
-                                     ram_addr + below_4g_mem_size);
-    }
+        if (above_4g_mem_size > 0) {
+            cpu_register_physical_memory(0x100000000ULL, above_4g_mem_size,
+                                         ram_addr + below_4g_mem_size);
+        }
 #endif
+    }
 
     /* BIOS load */
     if (bios_name == NULL)
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index 898561d..8a8ef4b 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -2324,6 +2324,13 @@ Specify a trace file to log output traces to.
 ETEXI
 #endif
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_FAKE_MACHINE
+DEF("fake-machine", 0, QEMU_OPTION_fake_machine,
+    "-fake-machine   create a fake machine incapable of running guest code\n"
+    "                mimimal resource use, use for scalability testing\n",
+    QEMU_ARCH_ALL)
+#endif
+
 HXCOMM This is the last statement. Insert new options before this line!
 STEXI
 @end table
diff --git a/targphys.h b/targphys.h
index 95648d6..f30530c 100644
--- a/targphys.h
+++ b/targphys.h
@@ -18,4 +18,11 @@ typedef uint64_t target_phys_addr_t;
 #endif
 #endif
 
+/* FIXME definitely in the wrong place here; where should it go? */
+#ifdef CONFIG_FAKE_MACHINE
+extern int fake_machine;
+#else
+#define fake_machine 0
+#endif
+
 #endif
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 0292184..bcc60b0 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -240,6 +240,10 @@ struct FWBootEntry {
 
 QTAILQ_HEAD(, FWBootEntry) fw_boot_order = QTAILQ_HEAD_INITIALIZER(fw_boot_order);
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_FAKE_MACHINE
+int fake_machine = 0;
+#endif
+
 int nb_numa_nodes;
 uint64_t node_mem[MAX_NODES];
 uint64_t node_cpumask[MAX_NODES];
@@ -2727,6 +2731,11 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
                     fclose(fp);
                     break;
                 }
+#ifdef CONFIG_FAKE_MACHINE
+            case QEMU_OPTION_fake_machine:
+                fake_machine = 1;
+                break;
+#endif
             default:
                 os_parse_cmd_args(popt->index, optarg);
             }
@@ -2817,6 +2826,15 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     }
     if (default_vga)
         vga_interface_type = VGA_CIRRUS;
+    if (fake_machine) {
+        /* HACK: Ideally we'd configure VGA as usual, but this causes
+         * several MB of VGA RAM to be allocated, and we can't do the
+         * tricks we use elsewhere to just return a single 4k page,
+         * because the VGA driver immediately memsets() the entire
+         * allocation it requested.
+         */
+        vga_interface_type = VGA_NONE;
+    }
 
     socket_init();
 
@@ -2835,6 +2853,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
         exit(1);
     }
 
+    if (fake_machine) {
+        kvm_allowed = 0;
+    }
     if (kvm_allowed) {
         int ret = kvm_init(smp_cpus);
         if (ret < 0) {
