Type of Computers

Please read the complete article carefully what is computer and types of computer, what is micro computer, super computer, mini computer, and mainframe computer.

In this article we have covered the topic :-  type of computer?

Please read the complete article carefully what is computer and types of computer, what is micro computer, super computer, mini computer, and mainframe computer .

Computers are divided into different types based on different criteria. Based on the size, a computer can be divided into four types :-

i. Micro Computer

ii. Mini Computer

iii. Mainframe Computer

iv. Super Computer

Micro Computer :-

What is Micro Computer - Definition 

Definition - A microcomputer is a complete computer on a small scale, designed for use by one person at a time. An antiquated term, a microcomputer is now primarily called a personal computer (PC), or a device based on a single-chip microprocessor. Common microcomputers include laptops and desktops. Beyond standard PCs, microcomputers also include some calculators, mobile phones, notebooks, workstations and embedded systems.

Smaller than a mainframe or minicomputer, a microcomputer uses a single integrated semiconductor chip for its central processing unit (CPU). They also contain memory in the form of read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM), input/output (I/O) ports, and a bus or system of interconnecting wires, all housed in a single unit usually referred to as a motherboard.

Common I/O devices include keyboards, monitors, printers and external storage.

(i) Micro Computer
(Type of Computer)

History of Micro Computer :-

The term microcomputer dates back to the 1970s. The advent of the Intel 4004 microprocessor in 1971, and later the Intel 8008 and Intel 8080 microprocessor in 1972 and 1974 respectively, paved the path to the creation of the microcomputer.

The first microcomputer was the Micral, released in 1973 by Realization d'Etudes Electroniques (R2E). Based on the Intel 8008, it was the first non-kit computer based on a microprocessor. In 1974, the Intel 8008-based MCM/70 microcomputer was released by Micro Computer Machines Inc. (later known as MCM Computers).

Though released after the Micral and MCM/70, the Altair 8800 is often considered the first successful commercial microcomputer. Released in 1974, it was designed by Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) and was based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor. It retailed for around $400 in kit form, $600 assembled ($2,045 and $3,067 in 2018 dollars, respectively).

Mini Computer :-

What is a Minicomputer? – Definition

Definition: A minicomputer is also known as mini. It is a class of small computers that was introduced into the world in the mid-1960s. A minicomputer is a computer which has all the features of a large size computer, but its size is smaller than those. A minicomputer lies between the mainframe and the microcomputer because its size is smaller than the former one and larger than the latter one. A minicomputer is also called as a mid-range computer. Minicomputers are mainly multi-users systems where more than one user can work simultaneously. Mini computer examples: IBM’s AS/400e, Honeywell200, TI-990.

Minicomputer can support multi-users at a time or you can say that minicomputer is a multiprocessing system. Also, the power of processing of minicomputers is not larger than the power of mainframe and supercomputers. These minicomputers can do time-sharing, batch processing, and online processing.

(ii) Mini Computer
(Type of Computer)

History of Mini Computer :-

The term minicomputer was come to know in the 1960s and through that time only the small computers are made by making the use of transistors and core memory technologies. The first minicomputer which was developed was known as Digital Equipment Corporation, which was made by using transistors and it costs from the US $16000.

Mainframe Computer :-

What is Mainframe Computer - Definition

Definition - Mainframes are computers. At their core, mainframes are high-performance computers with large amounts of memory and processors that process billions of simple calculations and transactions in real time.

In other words, Mainframe computer likes as a big centralized machine that contains the large memory, huge storage space, multiple high grade processors, so it has ultra processing power compare to standard computer systems. So, mainframe computer system’s importance is increasing for large scale organization, scientific research, consumer statistics, and census data, because it is capable to execute multiple complex programs concurrently at the ultra speed. Today, most eminent vendors of mainframe computers are IBM, Hitachi, Amdahl, and Unisys.

(iii) Mainframe Computer
(Type of Computer)

History of Mainframe Computer :-

The history of operating systems running on IBM mainframes is a notable chapter of history of mainframe operating systems, because of IBM's long-standing position as the world's largest hardware supplier of mainframe computers.

Arguably the operating systems which IBM supplied to customers for use on its early mainframes have seldom been very innovative, except for the virtual machine systems beginning with CP-67. But the company's well-known reputation for preferring proven technology has generally given potential users the confidence to adopt new IBM systems fairly quickly. IBM's current mainframe operating systems, z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, and z/TPF, are backwards compatible successors to operating systems introduced in the 1960s, although of course they have been improved in many ways.

Both IBM-supplied operating systems and those supplied by others are discussed here, if notably used on IBM mainframes.

Super Computer :-

What is Super Computer - Definition 

Definition - A supercomputer is the fastest computer in the world that can process a significant amount of data very quickly. The computing Performance of a “supercomputer” is measured very high as compared to a general purpose computer. The computing Performance of a supercomputer is measured in FLOPS (that is floating-point operations per second) instead of MIPS. The supercomputer consists of tens of thousands of processors which can perform billions and trillions of calculations per second, or you can say that supercomputers can deliver up to nearly a hundred quadrillions of FLOPS.

They have evolved from grid to cluster system of massively parallel computing. Cluster system computing means that machine uses multiple processors in one system instead of arrays of separate computers in a network.

These computers are most massive concerning size. A most powerful supercomputer can occupy few feet to hundreds of feet. The supercomputer price is very high, and they can vary from 2 lakh dollar to over 100 million dollars.

Supercomputers were introduced in the 1960s and developed by Seymour Cray with the Atlas at the University of Manchester. The Cray designed CDC 1604 which was the first supercomputer in the world, and it replaces vacuum tube with transistors.

The fastest supercomputer in the world was the Sunway Taihu Light, in the city of Wixu in China which is developed by China’s National Research center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC), maintains its number 1 ranking for the first time, with a High-Performance Linpack(HPL) mark of 93.01 peta flops.

(iv) Super Computer
(Type of Computer)

History of Super Computer :-

The term "Super Computing" was first used in the New York World in 1929 to refer to large custom-built tabulators that IBM had made for Columbia University.

In 1957, a group of engineers left Sperry Corporation to form Control Data Corporation (CDC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Seymour Cray left Sperry a year later to join his colleagues at CDC. In 1960, Cray completed the CDC 1604, one of the first generation of commercially successful transistorized computers and at the time of its release, the fastest computer in the world. However, the sole fully transistorized Harwell CADET was operational in 1951, and IBM delivered its commercially successful transistorized IBM 7090 in 1959.

Around 1960, Cray decided to design a computer that would be the fastest in the world by a large margin. After four years of experimentation along with Jim Thornton, and Dean Roush and about 30 other engineers Cray completed the CDC 6600 in 1964. Cray switched from germanium to silicon transistors, built by Fairchild Semiconductor, that used the planar process. These did not have the drawbacks of the mesa silicon transistors. He ran them very fast, and the speed of light restriction forced a very compact design with severe overheating problems, which were solved by introducing refrigeration, designed by Dean Roush. The 6600 outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM 7030 Stretch,[clarification needed] by a factor of three. With performance of up to three megaFLOPS, it was dubbed a supercomputer and defined the supercomputing market when two hundred computers were sold at $9 million each.

Progress in the first decade of the 21st century was dramatic and supercomputers with over 60,000 processors appeared, reaching petaflop performance levels.