Method for enhanced I/O in an emulated computing environment

An emulation system functions to translate instructions comprising a target application of a target system into corresponding instructions native to a host system and executes the instructions on the host system. During execution, the emulation system encounters target disk read/write operations. As the memory architectures of the host and target computer systems differ, the data in host memory is conformed to a target memory format when data in keyboard memory buffer is processed. Also, the host and target disk controllers cause storage of data on diskettes in differing byte orders. However, the emulation system performs disk/read write operations without byte-reversal prior to disk-write or subsequent to disk read operations. Thus, the host does not produce storage media having data conforming to that of target storage media. However, despite this drawback, the emulation system strikes a favorable balance between the need for precise replication of target application functionality on the one hand, and the importance of overall emulation system performance on the other.