Emulação

Another measure of connectivity is the ability to run programs from other operating systems in emulation. Emulated software runs more slowly than native software, but allows for easy trading of data and use of obscure programs available on a limited number of platforms. Hardware emulation can attain the same speed as the actual system being emulated and has the possible advantage of sharing some computer resources (sharing hard drives, sharing monitors, etc.) and maybe even the ability to copy and paste between systems or other levels of direct sharing, as well as saving desk space by requiring only one computer set-up to run multiple systems.

Operating systems that can emulate MS-DOS: Amiga (with third party software or hardware emulation), FreeBSD, Macintosh (with third party software Virtual PC or hardware emulation), Macintosh OS X (with third party Virtual PC or Apple and third party hardware emulation), Rhapsody (with third party Virtual PC running in the BlueBox)

Operating systems that can emulate Windows 3.1: Macintosh (with third party Virtual PC or Apple and third party hardware emulation), Macintosh OS X (with third party Virtual PC), OS/2 (built-in), Rhapsody (with third party Virtual PC running in the BlueBox)

Operating systems that can emulate Windows 95: AIX (with third party SoftWindows95) , Macintosh (with third party Virtual PC or SoftWindows95 or Apple and third party hardware emulation), Macintosh OS X (with third party Virtual PC or SoftWindows95), Rhapsody (with third party Virtual PC or SoftWindows95 running in the BlueBox)

Operating systems that can emulate Windows 98: Macintosh (with third party Virtual PC or SoftWindows98 or Apple and third party hardware emulation), Macintosh OS X (with third party Virtual PC or SoftWindows98), Rhapsody (with third party Virtual PC or SoftWindows98 running in the BlueBox)

Operating systems that can emulate Macintosh: Amiga (with third party hardware emulation)

Operating systems that can emulate LINUX: FreeBSD

Operating systems that can emulate SCO: FreeBSD

Operating systems that can emulate SVR4: FreeBSD

Operating systems that can emulate C64: Amiga (with third party software emulation)

Operating systems that can emulate Atari ST: Amiga (with third party software or hardware emulation)

“What is operating system emulation? Each computer family works with specifically tailored software, on the operating system level as well as on the application level. When you supply a computer with soft- and/or hardware so that it’s able to use software written for a different platform, this is called emulation. The Amiga is sort of a world champion in emulating other platforms like the PC, Macintosh®, C64, Atari ST®, and more.” —Amiga Emulation