By Lance Boley, Product and Solutions Evangelist, Dell Emulation and virtualization carry many similarities, yet they have distinct operational differences. If you’re looking to access an older operating system within a newer architecture, emulation would be your preferred route.
Conversely, virtualized systems act independent of the underlying hardware. We’ll look to separate these often confused terms, and describe what each of them mean for business IT operations. Emulation, in short, involves making one system imitate another. For example, if a piece of software runs on system A and not on system B, we make system B “emulate” the working of system A. The software then runs on an emulation of system A. In this same example, virtualization would involve
taking system A and splitting it into two servers, B and C. Both of these “virtual” servers are independent software containers, having their own access to software based resources – CPU, RAM, storage and networking – and can be rebooted independently. They behave exactly like real hardware, and an application or another computer would not be able to tell the difference. Each of these technologies have their own uses, benefits and shortcomings. In our emulation
example, software fills in for hardware – creating an environment that behaves in a hardware-like manner. This takes a toll on the processor by allocating cycles to the emulation process – cycles that would instead be utilized executing calculations. Thus, a large part of the CPU muscle is expended in creating this environment. Interestingly enough, you can run a virtual server in an emulated environment. So, if emulation is such a waste of resources, why consider it? Emulation can
be effectively utilized in the following scenarios:
Emulation is also useful when designing software for multiple systems. The coding can be done on a single machine, and the application can be run in emulations of multiple operating systems, all running simultaneously in their own windows. VirtualizationIn our virtualization example, we can safely say that it utilizes computing resources in an efficient, functional manner – independent of their physical location or layout. A fast machine with ample RAM and sufficient storage can be split into multiple servers, each with a pool of resources. That single machine, ordinarily deployed as a single server, could then host a company’s web and email server. Computing resources that were previously underutilized can now be used to full potential. This can help drastically cut down costs. While emulated environments require a software bridge to interact with the hardware, virtualization accesses hardware directly. However, despite being the overall faster option, virtualization is limited to running software that was already capable of running on the underlying hardware. The clearest benefits of virtualization include:
Between emulation and virtualization, your business can perform most virtual systems functions. While both services sound alike, it all revolves around how you utilize the software. If you want the software to get out of the way, virtualization allows guest code to run directly on the CPU. Conversely, emulators will run the guest code themselves, saving the CPU for other tasks. Virtualization vs. Emulation: Comparing the TwoVirtualization splits a single physical computer into multiple “virtual” servers. The virtual machines (VMs) operate on the dedicated hardware without depending on each other. With virtualization, you split a single physical system into various independent environments, known as virtual machines. It helps you create multiple computer simulations with dedicated resources from the host hardware. The server based system architecture (SBSA) capabilities are identical to the host system with the help of a hypervisor or the Virtual machine monitor (VMM). Virtualization is far more capable and has multiple levels of implementation. EmulationEmulation is a concept of creating an environment that imitates the properties of one system onto another. An Emulator mimics the qualities and logic of one processor to run in another platform efficiently. Emulation is an excellent way to run an OS or software in any other system. Guest Operators need a translation. Emulation brings higher overhead but has its perks too. It is highly inexpensive, easy to access, and helps us run the programs that have become obsolete in the available system. An emulator converts the needed architecture CPU instructions and successfully runs it on another architecture. Anyone can access the emulation platforms remotely and is easier to use. It is an excellent ability to have for embedded/OS development, without affecting the underlying OS. Emulation can generally handle the size of the design under test (DUT), without considering the host’s capabilities. Also Read: Implementation Levels of Virtualization Explained The Main Difference Between Virtualization and EmulationUnlike in virtualization, the emulation process requires a software bridge. In virtualization, you can directly access the hardware. The main difference between the virtual machine and emulator is that the virtual machine runs code directly with a different set of domains in use language. The basic emulation requires an interpreter. This interpreter translates the source code and converts it to the host system’s readable format, to further process it. Whereas, in an emulator, the guest operating system does not run on the physical hardware. Emulators are slow in comparison to the Virtual Machines. Emulators do not rely on CPU while the VMs make use of CPU. Unlike Emulation, Virtualization puts a layer between hardware physically to control access to it. This helps in resource sharing amongst guest machines as the virtualization gives you access to the host resources. The virtual machines use the central system’s resources directly. Also, the VM solution is costlier and more complex than the emulation technique. But the virtualization provides more throughput and minimal overhead with a better backup and recovery solution. Also Read: Things to Consider for Virtualization Disaster Recovery Virtualization Vs. Emulation Comparison in Tabular FormVirtualization and Emulation Popularity ComparisonThe graph below displays the popularity trends of Virtualization and Emulation over Google search in the last 5 years, within the U.S.
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