1. A system to emulate a mainframe channel for testing and diagnostics of mainframe peripheral devices and for remote control and configuration of testing and diagnostics of said mainframe peripheral devices, which system comprises: an emulator central processing unit communicably attached to at least one of said mainframe peripheral devices; first device driver software resident in said emulator central processing unit to initialize and start at least one adapter for said at least one of said mainframe peripheral devices; second channel program software resident in said emulator central processing unit with commands to said emulator central processing unit and to said mainframe peripheral devices; and third application software resident in said emulator central processing unit to test and diagnose said mainframe peripheral devices.