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This list of computer size categories attempts to list commonly used categories of computer by the physical size of the device and its chassis or case, in descending order of size. 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 ...
The term supercomputer itself is rather fluid, and the speed of today's supercomputers tends to become typical of tomorrow's ordinary computer. Supercomputer processing speeds are measured in floating-point operations per second, or FLOPS. An example of a floating-point operation is the calculation of mathematical equations in real numbers.
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 ...
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.
There weren't appreciable numbers of laptops and tablets when the term microcomputer originated (and term, like Mainframe and Minicomputer not used so much anymore). The usage here corresponds roughly to one of the usages mentioned in the wikipedia article in that it covers machines of about the size and design as were common when the term ...
The appearance of even lower-priced scientific workstations (e.g., Dana Computer/Ardent Computer/Stellar Computer (the merger of these companies)) based on microprocessors with high performance floating point units (FPUs) during the 1990s (such as the MIPS R8000, IBM POWER2), and Weitek eroded the demand for this class of computer.
Sold computer division to AST Research; former parent company of Radio Shack: Tangerine Computer Systems — United Kingdom: 1979: 1987: Bankruptcy: Télémécanique — France: 1968: 1976: Computer division merged with CII's minicomputer division to become Société européenne de mini-informatique et systèmes (SEMS) Tava Corporation ...
The ICL Series 39 was a range of mainframe and minicomputer computer systems released by the UK manufacturer ICL in 1985. The original Series 39 introduced the "S3L" (whose corrupt pronunciation resulted in the name "Estriel" [1]: 341 ) processors and microcodes, and a nodal architecture, which is a form of Non-Uniform Memory Access.