Emulation addresses the original hardware and software environment of the digital object, and recreates it on a current machine. Emulation focuses on recreating an original computer environment, which can be time-consuming and difficult to achieve, but valuable because of its ability to maintain a closer connection to the authenticity of the digital object, operating system, or even gaming platform. Yes, it's possible for a 64 to emulate an IBM PC, in the same sense that it's possible to bail out Lake Michigan with a teaspoon.Įmulation is one strategy in pursuit of digital preservation and combating obsolescence.

It also says nothing about timing constraints if the emulator does not perform as quickly as it did using the original hardware, the software inside the emulation may run much more slowly (possibly triggering timer interrupts that alter behavior). However, in practice, it can be quite difficult, particularly when the exact behavior of the system to be emulated is not documented and has to be (sometimes tediously) deduced through reverse engineering. The Church-Turing thesis implies that (theoretically) any operating environment can be emulated within any other environment (assuming memory limitations are ignored). Examples include the DOS-compatible card installed in some 1990s-era Macintosh computers, such as the Centris 610 or Performa 630, that allowed them to run personal computer (PC) software programs and FPGA-based hardware emulators.

Since at least the 1990s, many video game enthusiasts and hobbyists have used emulators to play classic (and/or forgotten) arcade games from the 1980s using the games' original 1980s machine code and data, which is interpreted by a current-era system and to emulate old video game consoles.Ī hardware emulator is an emulator which takes the form of a hardware device. If a non-HP printer emulates an HP printer, any software written for a real HP printer will also run in the non-HP printer emulation and produce equivalent printing. Many printers, for example, are designed to emulate HP LaserJet printers because so much software is written for HP printers. An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peripheral devices designed for the guest system.Įmulation refers to the ability of a computer program in an electronic device to emulate (or imitate) another program or device. In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the host) to behave like another computer system (called the guest). Additionally, the output of the historical thermal printer of this calculator line can be displayed. An emulation app for the 1983 programmable calculator HP-41CX running on Apple iOS.

Nox mac emulator model change