emulation Last modified: Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Refers to the ability of a program or device to 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. By emulating an HP printer, a printer can work with any software written for a real HP printer. Emulation tricks the software into believing that a device is really some other device. Communications software packages often include terminal emulation drivers . This enables your PC to emulate a particular type of terminal so that you can log on to a mainframe. It is also possible for a computer to emulate another type of computer. For example, there are programs that enable an Apple Macintosh to emulate a PC.
Yahoo!'s emulation software page Yahoo!'s directory of emulation software. Emulators FAQ Contains links to a three part FAQ on emulators from the comp.emulators.misc newsgroup.

Related Terms

communications software compatible log on mainframe terminal