4 May
2016
4 May
'16
8:24 p.m.
Could someone with access to the OED please check up the first use of the term
"minicomputer"
I strongly suspect it was around the time that the PDP11/20 came out or slightly later.
The IBM 1130 and 1800 were comparable to the /original/ CDC 1700, were similarly launched
in the mid 60s,
but similarly they were not /at that time/ referred to as minis.
In retrospect we might well call these minicomputers but that is not the question as
stated.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, 5 May, 2016 3:33:03 AM
Subject: Re: AW: When did Memory- and IO Protection Emerge (Esp. in Minis)?
On 05/04/2016 05:07 PM, ANDY HOLT wrote:
Well, I don't know. By the time the Cyber 18 came out, it was a 120 VAC
powered unit that a strongish person could lift off the floor (about 90
lbs)--and functionally pretty much the same machine as the original
1700, just implemented with more advanced technology.
If that's not a minicomputer, I don't know what is.
We used them as data concentrators hooked to leased lines, card readers
and punches and various other peripherals.
If the 1700 isn't a minicomputer, you'll have to correct the Wikipedia
article.
--Chuck
Is the CDC 1700 considered to be in the family of
"minicomputers"?
(i.e. was the word invented before then?).
Though functionally it sort of had the minicomputer nature, it was
physically a bit large for that term ? would have been called a
"process control" computer. I also don't think I heard the word
"minicomputer" until a couple of years after I first saw a CDC 1700.