Emulation Framework [EF]

Welcome to the Emulation Framework project

The Emulation Framework is software developed by the international KEEP project, co-funded by the European Union's 7th Framework Programme. It is available as open source software under the Apache 2.0 license.

DPC Award for Research & Innovation goes to the PLANETS project

3 Dec 2012 - The winner of DPC Award for Research & Innovation is the PLANETS project, a European research project (2006-2010) in the field of Digital Preservation. The Emulation Framework (EF), developed by the KEEP project, was also nominated for this award, but the independent jury voted otherwise. Although the EF didn't win the price, the project team was congratulated to make it to the finalists of the award of which has been said to be the most challenging competition in the DPC's history. And seeing the PLANETS project win the price is also important as this project was at the start of initiating new follow-up projects like KEEP and the Emulation Framework. More can be read at the DPC website.

EF nominated for DPC Award

8 Oct 2012 - The Emulation Framework is nominated for the R&D award of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). The project is one of the four on the shortlist for the award. The DPC award is meant for groundbreaking new developments in the field of digital preservation leading to new innovations and helping organisations to deal with the challenges that our digital era poses to us. On 3rd of Dec 2012 the winner for the award will be announced. Before then the judges will take a closer look to the project and its outcomes and there will be an online voting. We will let you know when you can vote for this project! See the DPC website for the press release and an overview for all shortlisted projects.

EF passes 500 downloads!

1 Oct 2012 - The Emulation Framework has been downloaded 500 times since it became available in June 2011. Since then, several releases has been done of which the current release (2.1.0) is most popular as it is downloaded 100 times within six months. This shows a steady interest in the software, even after the KEEP project ended. Even several organisations in various businesses are using the EF or are considering to use it, amongst them the National Library of the Netherlands and the German Computerspiele Museum in Berlin.

EF version 2.1.0 released

12 April 2012 - Release 2.1.0 of the Emulation Framework (EF) is now available for download. This is a minor update in comparison with the previous release in February 2012. It solves a number of issues that occured during installation of the EF on certain computers (Windows), fixed shell scripts for MacOS and Linux. Furthermore, it includes support for German language in the Comprehensive GUI (advanced users). See the release notes for more information.

What is the Emulation Framework?

The Emulation Framework offers a convenient way to open old digital files and run programs in their native computer environment. This way you can experience the intended 'look and feel' independent from current state of the art computer systems. The spectrum of potential computer platforms and applications that can be supported is practically unlimited. The current release of the EF supports emulators for the x86 computer platform, Commodore 64, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and Thomson. Emulation is done by using existing emulators which are carefully selected on their capability to mimic the functionality of these platforms.

The illustration below shows you how this works.



EF workflow