Emulation 101:

Emulation as a
Strategy
METRO DigiPres Meetup
January 22, 2020
Emulation
● Implement a hardware equivalent in
software
○ Every hardware logic circuit has an
equivalent representation in
software

● Not new: concept has been around as

long as computing itself

● Commonly associated with gaming

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Emulation as Access Strategy
● Also not a new idea!
○ see Rothenberg in Scientific
American, 1995

● Computing as an environment in
need of conservation

● Rendering matters
○ Affects both context and
content

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Original content in original software Original content in newer software
(WordPerfect in Windows 95) (LibreOffice Writer in Windows Vista)

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Complexities
● Usability
● Scalability
● Preservation Paradox
● Legal Framework

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 What is
Emulation-as-
a-Service (EaaS)?

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 Simplifies access to
various emulators

EaaS

Clockwise from top: FS-UAE (Amiga), LinApple (Apple II),

VICE (Commodore), Mini vMac (Macintosh Plus), SheepShaver
(PowerPC Macs), BeebEm (BBC Micro), QEMU (x86 PCs), Hatari
(Atari) 7
Enables management of
persistent emulation
environments

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Emulation-as-a-Service
￮ In development by the bwFLA team at
the University of Freiburg since 2011
(maintained commercially by OpenSLX)
￮ Since 2017, CiTAR builds RDM
workflows to repeat, replicate,
reproduce or reuse software based
research on top of EaaS
￮ Since 2018, EaaSI

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Our Funders

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Project Goal
Deploy and scale infrastructure and
services for software emulation,
including distributed management,
sharing, documentation/discovery,
and access.

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EaaSI - Updated UI Wireframe 16
Distributed Mgmt

￮ A network of distributed nodes, each

contributing to the EaaSI service and
the software development roadmap.

￮ Affiliation with the Software

Preservation Network.

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Sharing

￮ In-network sharing of software images

and configured environments.
￮ Yale University Library will contribute
at least 3000 pre-configured software
applications running in configured
environments.

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“
Fair use applies to institutions
making software available on a
cooperative basis to broaden
research opportunities,
including off-premises access
using technology such as
Emulation as a Service…
– ARL Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for
Software Preservation

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Documentation/
Discovery
￮ Incorporating services developed by
Wikidata for Digital Preservation
￮ Comprehensive, open,
machine-readable documentation
￮ Defining profile for description of
software and computer environments

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Access Service Demos

￮ Emulated CD-ROM environment

sharing service
￮ Virtual Reading Rooms Service
￮ Scientific Software Portal
￮ API to automatically render objects in
original software via emulation (the
Universal Virtual Interactor)
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Repositories and Resources
￮ https://gitlab.com/eaasi

￮ EaaSI production components, including installer, UI, server

￮ https://gitlab.com/emulation-as-a-service/emulators

￮ Container-ized versions of emulators for use with EaaS/EaaSI

￮ https://eaasi.gitlab.io/eaasi_user_handbook

￮ EaaSI user manual (including instructions for production or test deployment)

￮ https://github.com/eg-tech/emulation-resources

￮ links to other relevant projects, tips, readings

￮ https://softwarepreservationnetwork.org/eaasi

￮ EaaSI news, blogs and updates!

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