> do you emulate the actual sub-operations the FPGA does?
Yes. It's an emulator.
> ... is going to have to write an implementation in C that emulates the hardware.
Makes sense. It's an emulator.
> ... and it'll run dog slow on the CPU compared to using the native functions.
Isn't that to be expected? It's an emulator. This isn't like games where it just has to look close. If it's a dev tool for testing correctness, exactness matters.
Yes. It's an emulator.
> ... is going to have to write an implementation in C that emulates the hardware.
Makes sense. It's an emulator.
> ... and it'll run dog slow on the CPU compared to using the native functions.
Isn't that to be expected? It's an emulator. This isn't like games where it just has to look close. If it's a dev tool for testing correctness, exactness matters.