AW: When did Memory- and IO Protection Emerge (Esp. in Minis)?

[ANDY HOLT]

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:
> 
>> 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.

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