Types of Computers -Super Computers, Mainframe Computers,Mini computers,Microcomputers
Types of Computers
Super Computers, Mainframe Computers,
Mini computers,Microcomputers
Types of Computers On The Basis of Size
Computers are available in different sizes as below :
- Super computers
- Mainframe computers
- Supermini and Mini Computers
- Microcomputers
These are amongst the fastest machines in terms of processing speed, using multiprocessing techniques , where a number of processors are used to solve a problem.
There are a number of manufacturing who dominate the market of super computers – CRAY (CRAY YMP, CRAYZ), ETA (EDC-ETA10, ETA 20) and IBM 3090 (with vector) , NEC (NEC SX-3), Fujitsu (VP Series) and HITACHI (S series).
Super computers are normally used to solve problems which require intensive numerical computations. Examples of such problems are numerical weather prediction, designing supersonic aircrafts, design of drugs and modeling complex molecules.
Super computers can carry out 1012 floating point operations per second on 64 bit floating point numbers. Super computers have main memory of around 8 GB and a secondary memory of 1000 GB.
Mainframe Computers
Mainframe computers are large computers and are generally 32-bit machines or on the higher side. They have very large disks to store several Giga Bytes of data and transfer data from disk to main memory at several hundred Megabytes/sec.
The processing power is several million transactions per second. They normally use proprietary operating systems which usually provide extensive services such as user accounting , file security and control.
Mainframe computers are suited to big organizations, to manage high volume applications .Mainframe are also used as central host computers in distributed systems. There are a few manufacturers of mainframes such as IBM and Hitachi. Few of popular mainframe serves are MEDHA, Sperry, DEC, ICL etc.
Mini computers
Mini computer is a mini version of mainframe computer and is smaller and cheaper.
Initial mini computers were 8-bit and 12-bit machines but by 1970s almost all mini computers developed into 16 bit machines. The 16-bit mini computes have efficient storage and handling of text, in comparison to lower bit machines. A 16-bit mini computer was more powerful machine which could be used in variety of applications and could support business applications along with the scientific applications.
With the advancement of technology , the speed, memory size and other characteristics developed and the mini computer was then used for various standalone or dedicated applications. It was then used as a multi-user system.
Gradually, the architectural requirement of mini computers grew and 32-bit microcomputers which were called super minis were introduced. The super minis had more peripheral devices, large memory and could support more users working simultaneously on the computer in comparison to previous mini computers.
Microcomputers(PC-Personal Computer)
A micro computer is a small general purpose computer system that provides all functional elements found in larger systems. Microcomputers are based on micro-processor chips. The microcomputers originated in late 1970s.
The first microcomputer was built around 8-bit microprocessor chips. It means that the chip can retrieve instructions/data from storage, manipulate and process an 8-bit data at a time or we can say that chip has a built-in 8-bit data transfer path. A few 8-bit microprocessor chips are Zilog Z80, Intel 8080 and MC 6809.
An improvement of 8-bit chip technology was seen in early 1980s, when a series of 16-bit chips 8086 and 8088 were introduced by Intel corporation. 8088 is a 8/16 bit chip i.e. an 8-bit path is used to move data between chip and primary storage, at a time, but processing is done within the chip using a 16-bit path (interval path) at a time. 8086 is a 16/16 bit chip. Intel’s 80286 is a 16/32 bit chip and can support upto 16MB of primary storage.
Similar to Intel’s chip series, there exists another popular chip series of Motorola. The first 16-bit microprocessor of this series is MC 68000. It is a 16/32 bit chip and can support upto 16MB of primary storage. An advancement over 16/32 bit chips are 32/32 chips. Some of the popular 32-bit chips are Intel’s 80486 and MC 68020 chips. Intel’s Pentium series chips are 32/64 bit chips.With the advancement of display and VLSI technology , now a micro-computer is available in very small size. Some of these are palmtop, laptop , notebook computers etc.
PALMTOP PC’S
With miniaturization and high density packing of transistors on a chip, computers with capabilities nearly that of PC’s which can be held in a palm have emerged. Palmtops have a tiny keyboard, small disk storage and can be connected to a wireless network. A palmtop computer has also the facilities to be used as a mobile phone, Fax and e-mail machine.
LAPTOP PC’S
Laptop PC’s are portable computers weighing around 2 kg. They use a keyboard, flat screen, liquid crystal display and a Pentium processor. Laptops come with all hard disk, CD-ROM and floppy disk. They should run with batteries and are thus designed to conserve energy. The most common use of Laptop computers is for travelling. They cost 3 to 4 times the cost of tabletop PC’s of the same capacity.
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