Virtualization vs. Emulation What’s the Difference

Virtualization and emulation are two technologies whose concepts are often confused, and the terms are sometimes mistakenly used interchangeably online. However, the confusion is understandable because the technologies share a common goal: creating a virtual environment capable of running guest operating systems or computer programs.

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However, there are some key differences related to how each of these technologies achieve their goals, which clearly separate virtualization and emulation.

What is Virtualization?

In computing, virtualization refers to the process of creating virtual versions of computing resources, whether hardware or software. These may include computers, hardware platforms, storage devices, computer network resources, operating systems, or computer programs in general.

The process is accomplished with the help of a hypervisor, or Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). It literally splits a physical computer into multiple virtual servers by allocating dedicated resources from the “host” system to the newly created “guest” system.

By running on dedicated resources, both the host and guest systems can function as completely independent environments, “virtual machines”, without relying on each other. In practice, you can create multiple computers from a single physical computer through resource allocation.

What is emulation?

In computing, emulation refers to the process of creating an environment that simulates the properties of a system, either hardware or software, inside a completely different one. This is done through an emulator, a computer program designed to mimic the properties of a “guest” system inside a “host” system.

To get the emulation right, emulators rely on an interpreter. An interpreter is a computer program that reads emulated guest system code instructions and then executes semantically equivalent operations on the host system.

Emulation is very popular for running programs and video games that have become obsolete in the host system or that were originally created for another environment.

Virtualization vs Emulation: What’s the difference?

The main difference between them is that in virtualization the guest system directly runs the code on the host system’s language. In emulation, the guest system requires a software bridge, an interpreter to translate its code into the host system’s language.

Furthermore, because the guest system in emulation does not run on the physical hardware of the host, emulation is slower than in virtualization. In contrast, in virtualization, guest systems have direct access to the allocated resources of the host, resulting in high throughput and minimal overhead.

If you want to run multiple operating systems on a single machine, or multiple copies of the same operating system, there are two main ways to do it: dual-booting or using a virtual machine. Both methods are useful, but they serve different purposes.

Not sure whether you should dual boot or use a virtual machine? We’ll help you decide. Let’s look at a series of questions that will help you decide which method is better for your particular needs.