Emulating its game console doesn't make much sense for Microsoft and Windows 8, but that doesn't mean the Xbox brand won't be front and center in its next OS.

Emulation is like translation. By translating the instructions required to run a piece of software on one hardware platform into a different language, that software can be reborn on a new platform--usually the PC--and enjoyed all over again as its original home fades into obscurity. And emulation is hard--it has to run in real time to properly mimic the original software. To continue the translation analogy, that would be like a translator speaking at the exact same time as his subject without a millisecond’s delay. As a result, emulation typically requires new hardware far more powerful than the original to perform effectively.

That explanation should serve to cast a harsh light of doubt upon the latest rumor sweeping the gaming world, which claims Windows 8 will offer built-in support for Xbox 360 games. Nevermind the complications of publishing deals and building a Windows-side equivalent for basic Xbox 360 functionality like the guide and friends lists--the foundation of emulating the Xbox 360’s PowerPC processor and its GPU would be an enormous task.

Instead of going on and on about how absurd this rumor sounds, though, we decided to take a look at the challenges Microsoft would face in developing a 360 emulator, the advantages of bundling such a program into Windows 8, and figuring out what kind of beastly computer it would take to emulate Xbox 360 games.

It’s not 100 percent impossible that Microsoft is cooking up some kind of Xbox 360 emulator--probably only 99 percent--and there is some overlap between the two systems. The PowerPC architecture has been emulated before with software like Dolphin, and Microsoft is better positioned than anyone to build a JIT compiler to translate the PowerPC instructions to x86. What’s more, the Xbox 360 runs on DirectX 9.

Despite those similarities, developing an emulator would be an investment of years of development time and would have to take into account the Xbox 360’s GPU and how the console processes everything from shaders to textures. Here’s what makes far more sense for Microsoft: porting games to Windows. Instead of emulating the Xbox’s hardware, Microsoft could easily capitalize on the similarities between the platforms (like DirectX 9) and port a selection of its popular first party titles to Games for Windows Live.

Games for Windows Live has already been integrated with Xbox.com, and Microsoft’s XNA Runtime works across PC, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7. Xbox Live will absolutely have a visible presence in Windows 8, but it will be through the presence of cross-platform arcade/indie games and major titles developed for PC and Xbox 360 rather than emulation. If we’re lucky, we’ll see a few direct download ports of popular Xbox 360 series like Forza and Halo that never made it to the PC.

How fast would a PC have to be to emulate Xbox 360 hardware, anyway? It’s impossible to say exactly, since the accuracy and quality of emulation varies wildly from one project to another. But let’s assume Microsoft’s mystery emulator worked about as well as Dolphin, which emulates the PowerPC architecture of the GameCube and Wii. CPU clock speed isn’t much of an indicator, but this should give you an idea of how much work goes into emulation: it takes a powerful PC running in the 3GHz or above range to run GameCube or Wii games in HD, but the Wii’s CPU is only clocked at about 729 MHz. GPU? 243 MHz.

The Xbox 360 uses a triple core 3.2 GHz processor and a 500 MHz GPU. Even if Microsoft built a killer emulator, the overhead created by translating from one platform to another and the resources allocated to Windows would make for one demanding piece of software.

Microsoft has worked hard to build Xbox Live into a brand that extends beyond its video game console. It will only reinforce that strength with TV on Xbox Live later this year. The company will always support the PC and we’ll continue to see tighter integration of Microsoft services with Windows 8 and the next Xbox. Building emulation into Windows 8 would be one way to accomplish that goal, but we bet Microsoft plans to bring a selection of Xbox games to the PC without relying on such a brute force solution.