Start from here! And you understand all.
for wp7.1
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista
Windows® Vista® (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 2 – all editions except Starter Edition
Windows 7 (x86 and x64) – all editions except Starter Edition
Installation requires 4 GB of free disk space on the system drive.
3 GB RAM
Windows Phone Emulator requires a DirectX 10 or above capable graphics card with a WDDM 1.1 driver
The Windows Phone SDK 7.1 is compatible with the final version of Visual Studio 2010 SP1.
for wp8
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro
Operating system type:
Windows 8 64-bit (x64) client versions
Hardware:
6.5 GB of free hard disk space
4 GB RAM
64-bit (x64) CPU
Windows Phone 8 Emulator:
Windows 8 Pro edition or greater
Requires a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
If your computer meets the hardware and operating system requirements, but does not meet the requirements for the Windows Phone 8 Emulator, the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 will install and run. However, the Windows Phone 8 Emulator will not function and you will not be able to deploy or test apps on the Windows Phone 8 Emulator.
Basically, you need Win 8 64x or Win7.