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What is emulation?An emulation solution is a process that allows one system (the host) to imitate another system (the guest), enabling legacy applications to run on modern hardware, such as an x86 system or a cloud platform. Emulators essentially replicate the legacy hardware environment on a new platform, thereby extending the life of legacy applications with minimal modifications.
The Charon Emulation solution is a widely used technology for modernizing outdated infrastructure while preserving legacy investments and leveraging modern technologies cost-effectively. It ensures business continuity while improving scalability, agility, and security, while eliminating downtime challenges.
ArticlesHave you ever wondered how decades-old software keeps running on today’s servers without a full rewrite? There are many legacy modernization strategies that allow you to transform the outdated infrastructure. One such popular approach is emulation, which is widely popular in enterprises as it preserves the existing legacy investment.
Emulation is the process of enabling one system (the host) to behave like another system (the guest) so that software written for the original environment can run with no modifications in their binary codes.
In practical terms, what is emulation? It is software that recreates the instruction set, memory model, peripherals, and timing of a different machine. This makes legacy hardware emulation possible on modern x86, ARM, or cloud platforms. Reports have suggested that despite their limitations, 60%-80% of businesses still rely on legacy hardware for their core operations. Based on the GAO report, up to 80% of the IT budget is consumed in maintaining the legacy systems.
The full rip-and-replace of the legacy infrastructure isn’t realistic. Rewriting decades of validated business logic is expensive and risky, and the applications running on it often still work exactly as intended. Therefore, emulation is the best solution for businesses looking to modernize their infrastructure. In this blog, we will cover what is emulation and how does emulation work, walk through the main types of emulation, and explain why legacy hardware emulation specifically has become a core modernization strategy for regulated industries.
What is emulation in simple terms can be defined as the process in which of making a host computer system imitate the complete behavior of a guest system so that the guest’s operating systems, applications, and other workloads can run on the host system smoothly.
Here the host runs an emulator that translates or interprets the guest’s instructions. It manages its memory map, handles I/O, and reproduces timing and device characteristics. This result is functional compatibility with the guest without making any changes to the original software.
It’s easy to confuse emulation with virtualization or simulation. But here is a difference:
Emulators are platforms (software or hardware) that enable the system to behave like a host system so that applications can seamlessly run on the guest system. So, it can be said that an emulator is a program that creates a virtual environment where the guest system “believes” is the original hardware. Here are some examples of emulators:
Types of emulation (or types of emulators) vary by the layer they target. Here are the most common categories:
CPU emulations are the software applications that mirror the CPU hardware system. One of the simplest variants of a CPU emulator is the interpreter, which is a software program designed to maintain an execution path for the applications that are emulated.
Game console emulation enables a user run games developed for different consoles on various other platforms, such as PCs, smartphones, and more, by replicating the environment of the original console.
Operating system (OS) emulation allows user operate on multiple operating systems simultaneously, mimicking the entire IT infrastructure’s behavior.
Network emulation solutions enable users to test and validate the performance, reliability, and scalability of network applications. They mimic the original network environments to conduct the tests seamlessly. Based on the MarketsandMarkets Report, the global network emulator market will grow from USD 252.4 million in 2025 to USD 361.4 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 7.4%. It is driven partly by the global deployment of 5G networks, including private 5G solutions for enterprises. This increases the need for emulators capable of testing high-speed, low-latency applications.
Application-specific emulation solutions are designed to mimic the particular behavior of software interfaces or components, offering compatibility with different applications for a wide range of platforms and allowing operations to run smoothly.
It emulates obsolete or unsupported hardware platforms, think SPARC, VAX, Alpha, PA-RISC, or PDP-11, on modern x86 or cloud infrastructure. It is to extend the life of critical workloads that are still in operations like the operating systems and applications with zero modifications to the binary codes.
Firstly, how does emulation work? At its core, the emulator intercepts instructions and data that the guest software expects to send to original hardware and translates them into actions the host can perform.
Here is the breakdown of key components of emulations and their functionalities:
The emulation core is one of the most important parts of the emulation core. It interprets the guest system instructions and changes them so that the host system can understand them and run the operations. The primary task of the emulation core is to be responsible for CPU memory management, input and output functions on the guest system, and other functionalities required to run operations.
The information and applications that are to run on the guest system are stored in the Read-Only Memory and ROM images. Also, to efficiently emulate these old systems and consoles and facilitate low-level control and hardware initializations, it is necessary to have BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) files.
The emulator’s user interface provides settings and control for emulation parameters regarding configurations, loading Read-Only Memory, and managing emulation settings. This functionality enables users to personalize their emulation experience by making adjustments in the settings for better compatibility and peak performance. It also helps foster seamless interactions with the replicated software.
Emulators contain elements for rendering graphics and audio processing, which enables them to mirror the visual and sound output on the guest system. These components may use software-based rendering or hardware acceleration techniques, which will improve reliability and performance.
Emulators provide a wide range of settings and configurations to match the hardware capabilities of the host systems, enabling users to manage the emulation parameters. The settings include CPU speed adjustments, input mapping, graphics rendering, and audio output configuration.
Here are some common usages of emulators:
Emulation allows the businesses to keep their exact software behavior while moving off physical hardware that’s failing, unsupported, or too expensive to maintain. Here are some advantages of emulation:
Emulations enable businesses to replicate software designed for one platform (host system) on a different platform (guest system) while ensuring cross-compatibility. They are very popular in legacy software migration to a modern platform.
It offers easy accessibility to certain software and hardware that otherwise may be difficult to obtain or run operations.
It offers developers a platform for testing applications and software in different environments by simulating hardware configurations and other conditions.
Extends the life of critical legacy applications while moving to cheaper, more reliable modern infrastructure. Migrating to a new platform eliminates the aging hardware maintenance costs.
The new platform offers better security posture and manageability to run critical workload.
Prevent business disruption from legacy hardware failures with proven strategies by Stromasys
Emulation is a procedure for replicating the entire hardware or software (host system) on a new system known as the guest system. It enables various applications to run seamlessly on a guest system and allows the user to access other older applications and operating systems. Virtualization is a process that offers complete access to computing resources through virtual machines regardless of their location or physical layout.
Here is a comparison: Emulation vs Virtualization
| Virtualization | Emulation |
|---|---|
| Creating a virtual version of a server, operating system, or more. | Replicates the host system on a guest system. |
| Enhances scalability, flexibility, and IT agility while minimizing cost. | It elevates customer experience, is cost-effective, and improves performance. |
| Aims to centralize administrative operations to enhance scalability and manage workloads. | Allows similar environments and characteristics to be mirrored when running operations. |
| No software bridge is required as it accesses the hardware directly. | Requires an emulator acting as the bridge. |
| An isolated ecosystem is created. | It behaves exactly the same way as the original hardware or software. |
| Cost-effective solution | Cheaper than virtualization |
| Uses and relies on the CPU | CPU is not required |
Bottom Line: If your guest and host run the same architecture, virtualization is usually a simpler and cheaper option for you. But, if you need to keep software built for hardware that is obsolete, emulation is the only path that preserves existing business logic cost-effectively.
Stromasys is a global leader in legacy system emulation, with over 7,000 clientele worldwide. Its flagship product, Charon emulation solutions, ensures smooth legacy hardware emulation on a modern platform. It offers a cost-effective and zero migration risk emulation solution to create an original hardware-like environment to run operations on a new platform, ensuring business continuity.
Charon solution is cutting-edge technology that uses lift-and-shift migration approach or rehosting strategy to move the critical existing workloads on a modern platform with zero modifications in the binary codes. It is available for both on-premises and cloud ecosystems. It means that based on your business requirements, you can choose which platform you want to migrate to.
Connect with our legacy system expert for more details regarding the Charon Emulation solution.
First, what is emulation? It is the bridge that lets application written for one system run on another smoothly without any modifications by recreating the original environment. Now, understanding how does emulation works? Through instruction translation, memory and device modeling, and careful timing that enables everything from game consoles to mission-critical legacy hardware emulation.
It underpins everything from retro gaming to the infrastructure running some of the world’s biggest banks. For enterprises still leaning on legacy hardware, and most large enterprises still are, emulation offers a way to escape end-of-life hardware risk without rewriting decades of validated business logic.
Emulation allows developers to test and run software in different environments. It replicates the functionalities of the original host systems on the guest systems, which enhances compatibility, scalability, flexibility, and reliability and improves security and efficiency. It is a cost-effective means to ensure business continuity while leveraging existing applications.
In the software context, emulation is a process of imitating the behavior of a host on a guest platform.
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