emulation
What It Means
Emulation is when one computer system perfectly mimics another system's behavior, running the same software and producing identical results as if it were the original system. It's like creating a digital twin that can execute legacy applications without modification. This allows organizations to retire old hardware while preserving access to critical software and data.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Emulation enables AI and data teams to access valuable historical data trapped in legacy systems without expensive hardware maintenance or risky system migrations. It's crucial for regulatory compliance when organizations must retain access to old records and applications for auditing purposes. This technology also allows teams to modernize infrastructure while maintaining business continuity and avoiding costly application rewrites.
Real-World Example
A pharmaceutical company needs to access 20-year-old clinical trial data stored in a proprietary database that only runs on obsolete Unix workstations. Instead of maintaining expensive vintage hardware, they use emulation software to create a virtual version of the old Unix system on modern servers, allowing researchers to query historical trial data for new drug development while meeting FDA record-keeping requirements.
Common Confusion
People often confuse emulation with virtualization, but emulation recreates different hardware architectures while virtualization runs multiple instances of the same architecture. Emulation is also different from simulation - emulation produces identical results to the original system, while simulation approximates behavior for analysis purposes.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, emulation enables organizations to maintain access to legacy medical systems and patient data when transi...
Finance: In finance, emulation enables institutions to maintain access to legacy trading systems, risk management platforms, and ...
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- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"The use of a data processing system to imitate another data processing system, so that the imitating system accepts the same data, executes the same programs, and achieves the same results as the imitated system."Source: IEEE_Soft_Vocab
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