9 Mar
2023
9 Mar
'23
10:39 p.m.
Steve Lewis wrote:
I always considered a mainframe to basically be a
"fully decked out"
minicomputer.
You may find people will disagree with that. I'm not sure what
mainframe means either, but I'm asking around. Pysical size, I/O
capacity, CPU offload to front ends, and users served seem to factor
into it.
Actually, to answer my own question: if "main
frame" refers to the actual
framing... well the PDP-1, PDP-10, PDP-10 were minicomputers and still
required a lot of metal "framing" to set up. So, can't they be considered
mainframes?
I believe the term minicomputer was first applied to the PDP-8. It was
kind of retroactively applied going back to the PDP-1. Whether the
PDP-10 is a mini is sometimes hotly debated. IBM people say no, DEC
peole say yes.
another notion is that mainframes are
"multi-user" -- most early
microcomputers were not multi-user, as they just barely supported the needs
of one user; I'm not sure if the very first minicomputers were
multi-user?
Kind of yes, but recally early computers were often operated in batch mode.
Minis would typically do one task, or handle a few users.
The term minicomputer has always been awkward to me --
"mini" in my
head just means something smaller than me, which most minicomputers
aren't
Consider that a minicomputer is larger than microcomputer.
But to say "mainframe" when showing a
minicomputer
I don't think that does a service to anyone.