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A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of smaller general-purpose computer developed in the mid-1960s [1] [2] and sold at a much lower price than mainframe [3] and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors.
One generation's "supercomputer" is the next generation's "mainframe", and a "PDA" does not have the same set of functions as a "laptop", but the list still has value, as it provides a ranked categorization of devices. It also ranks some more obscure computer sizes.
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, [1] is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and large-scale transaction processing.
The PC Did to DEC What DEC Did to Mainframes DEC's invention of the minicomputer seriously disrupted International Business Machines' dominant position in the mainframe computer business. Because ...
In addition, minicomputers were more interactive than mainframes, and soon had their own operating systems. The minicomputer Xerox Alto (1973) was a landmark step in the development of personal computers, because of its graphical user interface, bit-mapped high-resolution screen, large internal and external memory storage, mouse, and special ...
These traditional minicomputers in the last few decades of the 20th century, found in small to medium-sized businesses, laboratories and embedded in (for example) hospital CAT scanners, often would be rack-mounted and connect to one or more terminals or tape/card readers, like mainframes and unlike most personal computers, but require less ...
Midrange computers, or midrange systems, were a class of computer systems that fell in between mainframe computers and microcomputers. [1] [failed verification]This class of machine emerged in the 1960s, with models from Digital Equipment Corporation (PDP lines), Data General (), and Hewlett-Packard (HP 2100 and HP 3000) widely used in science and research as well as for business - and ...
Prime Computer, Inc. was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers [1] from 1972 until 1992. With the advent of PCs and the decline of the minicomputer industry, Prime was forced out of the market in the early 1990s, and by the end of 2010 the trademarks for both PRIME [2] and PRIMOS [3] no longer existed.