<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  ASA-EMulatR Reference Guide > Introduction > Architecture Overview > Chapter 11 - Architectural Invariants > 11.1 Purpose of This Chapter

This chapter defines the architectural invariants of EMulatR.

 

An architectural invariant is a rule that must always hold true, is independent of implementation details, cannot be violated by optimization, and defines correctness — not performance. If an invariant is violated, the emulator is architecturally incorrect, even if it appears to work.

 

These invariants apply across single-CPU and SMP systems, PAL and non-PAL execution, all pipeline stages, and all device and MMIO interactions.

 

This chapter should be treated as a correctness checklist, a validation guide, a regression test oracle, and a contributor contract.

 

See Also: Every preceding chapter — this chapter is the formal statement of guarantees that Chapters 1–10 collectively enforce.