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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.
It is commonly stated that the C programming language took advantage of several low-level PDP–11–dependent programming features, [3] albeit not originally by design. [4] An effort to expand the PDP–11 from 16- to 32-bit addressing led to the VAX-11 design, which took part of its name from the PDP–11.
The term mainframe computer was created to distinguish the traditional, large, institutional computer intended to service multiple users from the smaller, single-user machines. These computers are capable of handling and processing very large amounts of data quickly.
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 ...
Programming techniques, such as overlaying a block of stored instructions or data with another as needed, can conceal paging issues from the application programmer. For example, the Modula-2 compiler produces code under which the run-time system swaps 8 Kb pages into memory as individual procedures receive control.
The result was the definition of a "VAX MIPS", the speed of a VAX-11/780; a computer performing at 27 VAX MIPS would run the same program roughly 27 times faster than the VAX-11/780. Within the Digital community the term VUP ( VAX Unit of Performance ) was the more common term, because MIPS do not compare well across different architectures.