Sometimes a single operating system just isn’t enough. However impractical, many users keep multiple computers on their desk, sometimes dedicating each computer to a very specific, solitary task. But wasting hardware isn’t always necessary. Computers are very flexible machines — flexible enough that one computer can emulate another. Emulation allows a physical computer to pretend to be another one.
Sometimes a single operating system just isn’t enough. However impractical, many users keep multiple computers on their desk, sometimes dedicating each computer to a very specific, solitary task. But wasting hardware isn’t always necessary. Computers are very flexible machines — flexible enough that one computer can emulate another. Emulation allows a physical computer to pretend to be another one.
Several different types of emulators exist. Some of these, such as WINE, emulate only operating system calls. (Some people prefer not to call such packages emulators, hence the expansion of the WINE acronym to mean WINE Is Not an Emulator.) The most complete form of emulation is one in which the entire computing environment, including the CPU, hard disk, memory, and so on, is emulated. Such CPU emulators are very powerful, but they can be slow — in most cases, the emulator must perform multiple CPU operations to perform each operation of the emulated CPU. However, if your CPU is substantially faster than the target system, though, this problem is largely moot. CPU emulators typically run the target’s original operating system in the emulator.
Why run an emulator? For several reasons.
* TO RUN NON-NATIVE PROGRAMS. If no Linux program exists to do precisely what you want, running an emulator may be your only option. For example, you might need to run Microsoft Office. A vibrant community also exists around emulators for older computers (such as the Apple II and Amiga) and game systems (such as the Atari…
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