14. A host system for emulating a target system, the host system comprising: a processor module coupled to a memory; a main execution thread containing processor executable instructions adapted to be executed by the processor module; and a speculative forward translation thread containing processor executable instructions adapted to be executed by the processor module, wherein the speculative forward translation thread includes: a) an instruction that, when executed, identifies one or more potential candidates for forward translation from one or more portions of target system code, wherein, when executed, said instruction that identifies the potential candidates searches for the potential candidates in an area of memory corresponding to a portion of target system code for which a translation request has been issued by the main execution thread; b) an instruction that, when executed, assigns a priority for forward translation to each of the potential candidates; c) an instruction that, when executed, determines whether the potential candidates are valid candidates for forward translation; and d) an instruction that, when executed, translates the potential candidates determined to be valid candidates to produce one or more corresponding blocks of translated code executable by the host system.
14. A host system for emulating a target system, the host system comprising: a processor module coupled to a memory; a main execution thread containing processor executable instructions adapted to be executed by the processor module; and a speculative forward translation thread containing processor executable instructions adapted to be executed by the processor module, wherein the speculative forward translation thread includes: a) an instruction that, when executed, identifies one or more potential candidates for forward translation from one or more portions of target system code, wherein, when executed, said instruction that identifies the potential candidates searches for the potential candidates in an area of memory corresponding to a portion of target system code for which a translation request has been issued by the main execution thread; b) an instruction that, when executed, assigns a priority for forward translation to each of the potential candidates; c) an instruction that, when executed, determines whether the potential candidates are valid candidates for forward translation; and d) an instruction that, when executed, translates the potential candidates determined to be valid candidates to produce one or more corresponding blocks of translated code executable by the host system. 15. The host system of claim 14 wherein the processor module includes a single core processor, and wherein the speculative forward translation thread and the main execution thread are adapted to be executed by the single core processor in a time-sharing fashion.