diff --git a/hack/dev-vm-arm64.sh b/hack/dev-vm-arm64.sh
index 40be3f2..c262110 100755
--- a/hack/dev-vm-arm64.sh
+++ b/hack/dev-vm-arm64.sh
@@ -120,9 +120,13 @@ if [ "$MODE" = "disk" ]; then
     echo "    Press Ctrl+A X to exit QEMU"
     echo ""
 
+    # -cpu max enables all emulated ARMv8 features (atomics, crypto, fp16).
+    # piCore64's BusyBox is built with -march=armv8-a+crypto+lse and segfaults
+    # under -cpu cortex-a72 because some required extensions aren't on by
+    # default in that model.
     qemu-system-aarch64 \
         -machine virt \
-        -cpu cortex-a72 \
+        -cpu max \
         -m 2048 \
         -smp 2 \
         -nographic \
@@ -186,7 +190,7 @@ echo ""
 
 qemu-system-aarch64 \
     -machine virt \
-    -cpu cortex-a72 \
+    -cpu max \
     -m 2048 \
     -smp 2 \
     -nographic \