Emulator

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). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peripheral devices designed for the guest system.

Emulators in computing

Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program in an electronic device to emulate (imitate) another program or device. Many printers, for example, are designed to emulate Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers because so much software is written for HP printers. 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.

A hardware emulator is an emulator which takes the form of a hardware device. Examples include the DOS-compatible card installed in some old-world Macintoshes like Centris 610 or Performa 630 that allowed them to run PC programs and FPGA-based hardware emulators.

1964 (emulator)

1964 is a Nintendo 64 emulator for Microsoft Windows, written in C/C++ and released as free software. It is one of the oldest and most popular N64 emulators, supporting many commercial N64 games.

History

1964 has existed since 1999. 0.9.9 was the first release with Netplay support. The oldest release still available is 0.7.0, released on Friday, November 23, 2001. Older versions of 1964 were known to run on the Windows 95, 98, and ME operating systems.

1964 is currently an N64 emulator for Windows with typical features like a dynamically recompiling CPU emulator. 1964 supports plug-ins written atop Zilmar's N64 Plugin Specifications.

The peak of 1964's popularity was in early 2004, after the release of 1964 0.9.9.

Recent releases

As of June 7, 2009, version 1.1 was released, with both the source code and binary files in a single archive.

Several contemporary console emulator developers got together and created a Google Code project with the latest source code. The accompanied video plug-in is a continuation of Rice Video, and, in addition to the current developers' progress, any fixes or enhancements made by the Mupen64Plus team (which handles a Linux port of Rice Video) are being adopted if possible.

3270 emulator

A 3270 Emulator is a computer program that duplicates the functions of an IBM 3270 mainframe computer terminal on a PC or similar microcomputer.

As the original 3270 series terminals were connected to the host computer using coaxial cable, emulators required coax adapter cards to be installed in the PC. Today, many emulators communicate with the mainframe computer through the TN3270 variant of the Telnet protocol common on TCP/IP networks including the Internet, so special hardware is no longer required.

Products

In 1983, IBM marketed the IBM 3270 PC, a bundled package including a PC, 3270 emulation software and coax interface card. 3270 emulators are also available from many third-party vendors like Attachmate and Ericom. Some solutions permitted a coax interface to be shared by workstations in a LAN.

See also

External links