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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 minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, [1] [2] built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe [3] and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. By 21st century-standards however, a mini is an exceptionally large machine ...
As of 2010, while mainframe technology represented less than 3% of IBM's revenues, it "continue[d] to play an outsized role in Big Blue's results". [ 28 ] IBM has continued to launch new generations of mainframes: the IBM z13 in 2015, [ 29 ] the z14 in 2017, [ 30 ] [ 31 ] the z15 in 2019, [ 32 ] and the z16 in 2022, the latter featuring among ...
For example, the computers behind the first Space Shuttle simulator consisted of thirty-six 32-bit minis inputting and/or outputting data to networked mainframe computers (both IBM and UNIVAC), all in real-time. The 8/32 was used in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona for research ...
Companies that sold mainframe computers began to offer machines in the same price and performance range as superminicomputers. [10] By the mid-1980s microprocessors with the hardware architecture of superminicomputers were used to produce scientific and engineering workstations. [11] The minicomputer industry then declined through the early ...
PDP-1 PDP-6 PDP-7 PDP-8/e PDP-11/40 PDP-12 PDP-15 (partial) PDP-15 graphics terminal with light pen and digitizing tablet. Programmed Data Processor (PDP), referred to by some customers, media and authors as "Programmable Data Processor," [1] [2] [3] is a term used by the Digital Equipment Corporation from 1957 to 1990 for several lines of minicomputers.
As a generalization, the price targets for these smaller computers were one-tenth of the larger supercomputers. Several notable technical, economic, and political attributes characterize minisupercomputers. First, they were architecturally more diverse than prior mainframes and minicomputers in hardware and less diverse in software.
From Minicomputer: A minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). The class at one time formed a distinct group with its own ...