Is there any difference between emulator and simulators?

I am just bit confused wit开发者_如何学Goh two different things as we have emulators in android and simulators in blackberry. Is there any difference between a simulator and an emulator or are they just different names for the same thing?

Emulator is combination of hardware and software. Simulator is only software.

Consider example of android emulator, when any action is done on android emulator, the instruction is get converted into ARM call and then to the underlying operating system(windows/mac/unix).

In case of iPhone simulator instructions on simulator are directly converted to the native call(Mac).

That's why emulator provides more realistic behavior.

See both the names are same for the "Virtual kind of Devices".

Its Emulator for Android, Simulator for BlackBerry, again Simulator for iPhone as well.

What is Virtual Device?

Virtual device means which is not a real phone(but almost giving the same functionality as real phone does except some features like camera) but developer can use it to test their application).

In the given context they both would refer to the same thing. However this is worth a read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator#Emulation_versus_simulation.

From RIM's own website:

There are a variety of BlackBerry® simulators available to emulate the functionality of actual BlackBerry products, including BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry Enterprise Server™.

In other words, yes, simulators are just a RIM term for emulators.

A simulator is mostly used to theoretically examine a system. Whereas an emulator clones the original system in some aspects.

Emulator : emulates Hardware and Software
Simulator: simulates only software

Check the following link :

http://www.mobileqazone.com/forum/topics/difference-emulator-and?xg_source=activity

Whereas I am concerned about these : Emulator : When you have the hardware capability and do not need to translate each instruction. in other words instructions are supported by hardware. Simulator : when instructions are not supported and you need to translate them with the native language.
Emulator are supposed to be faster than simulator, since no instruction translation is needed .