8 Sep
1998
8 Sep
'98
12:11 p.m.
On Tue, 8 Sep 1998, Allison J Parent wrote:
< Oh boy, taxonomy again! OK, here's my stab:
<
< Microprocessor: a single-chip CPU.
What if the cpu is multiple chips aka LSI-11?
I don't know why you would want to class that as a MPU. Most of these
terms were invented because a new breed came into existance and it needed
a new name to distinguish it from what came before. "Microprocessor"
was coined to celebrate a logic integration landmark: a computer on a
single chip.
< Microcomputer: a computer based on a single
microprocessor.
What if there are several performing different tasks in the same box.
OK, Microcomputer: a computer that runs applications on a single
microprocessor.
I really don't know what to call a SMP PC, though. Microsupercomputer?
< Workstation: a computer designed to run Unix with
a bitmapped display.
What if it's a VAX running VMS? Yes the VS3100s were definatly
workststions.
OK, Workstation: a computer with a bitmapped display designed to run a
non-Microsoft multitasking OS.
< Minicomputer: a timesharing computer that can
support fewer than 100
< simultaneous users.
VAX and minicomputer that could and often did have more than 100 users.
OK, Minicomputer: a general purpose computer without a memory-mapped
display, smaller than a mainframe.
< Mainframe: a timesharing computer than can
support 100 or more users
< simultaneously.
Generally big iron and most that had that distinction where physically
large. AKA univac 1180.
OK, Mainframe: a general purpose computer without a memory-mapped display
that weighs at least one ton.
< Embedded computer: a computer that requires
cross-development in order t
< reprogram.
Maybe, or it can be a single board computer installed into a dedicated
application. Generally term embedded means dedicated to a task(or set of
tasks). One possible embedded machine is a national Nibble Basic or
intel 8052ah (basic or forth) chip with a keyboard, LCD and EEPROM.
Some people use PC's as dedicated controllers, but that doesn't make
a PC an embedded computer in my mind. Cross-development seems to be the
only common factor when people talk about embedded, although there are
embedded environments, such as QNX, that support native development.
-- Doug