qemu : ram disk creation fails

While trying to boot a windows vmdk file from vmplayer/workstation using qemu using the command

qemu-system-i386 Windows_7_x64.vmdk

The following error prevented the boot of windows

ram disk creation fails

The workaround for this is which worked was using the -m option to increase the memory as shown below.

qemu .vmdk Windows_7_x64.vmdk -m 1.5G

The windows should boot now.