Applications of an emulation model towards the preservation of modern computing systems

In today's modern computing environment we are surrounded by a vast sea of electronic computing systems and devices. These systems are now closely integrated into our everyday lives and provide us with a wealth of computing power. While these systems provide us with great computational values, these very systems we have come to rely upon now also face issues regarding their own long term longevity and the issue of how to preserve such systems for future generations. At present in the current computing environment, if we examine the longevity aspect of computing systems, we will notice that there currently exists no good constructed model or framework for preserving computing systems in their original state. We present in this paper a method for developing a requirements based model for emulation of systems that support the modeling and preservation of a given system through the use of emulation in the following application areas: video game consoles, personal computer systems, and smartphones. For each of these application areas we present an emulation preservation model, using a set of requirements that can be used to describe the original system. These models can be used for modeling both the properties and requirements of each respective system, as well as to allow for the testing of these system requirements areas. From the testing of these system model requirement areas, we will be able to measure and evaluate how well they are able to emulate and perform the properties and requirements of the original system. We lastly present a set of test methods along with preliminary results that can be used for evaluating emulation as a means for the preservation of systems, and how this model can be further extended into a general emulation model.