You may also find that an emulator lacks a desired or required feature, or that it runs too slowly to be usable for your application. Another option to consider is an electronic switch that allows you to connect two or more computers to the same monitor, keyboard and mouse. If you plan to run two or more computers, there can be a cost savings both in terms of equipment and power usage. In addition, this type of setup may strike a good compromise in terms of space required and expanded capability. If you have a really nice monitor on one computer and a smaller, less capable, monitor on the other, an electronic switch would allow both computers to use the nicer monitor.
Electronic switches come in many packages and price ranges.
USB Switches USB switches tend to be the best choice when you have operating systems that support them. Also, Windows 95, Windows NT, and some PC Unix systems cannot be used with a USB switch. Both keyboards work well on Windows and Macintosh, provided USB ports and correct OS version are present. Adding additional systems is simply the cost of cables. It may even be possible to mix in older systems, but this can become quite expensive, and in some cases compatibility will be limited.