Minicomputers

Minicomputers, what exactly are they? If supercomputers and mainframes are considered to be the best in terms of mathematical operations then minicomputer systems succeed them.

Previously, minicomputers were considered to be superior to personal systems. But these days, advancement in technology has made minicomputers almost obsolete because the PCs today are highly advanced.

The Minicomputers were first built in in 1960s and they immediately became a huge success as 40,000 of the minicomputer systems were immediately sold of making the computers hugely available to the general public. With such a successful market possibility many companies stepped in to venture in the minicomputer market. The most successful among these two hundred companies was DEC that launched the minicomputer models PDP-11 and VAX 11/780.

Some significant aspects and historical facts about the mini computer system has been summarized as follows:

• They are much smaller in size than the mainframe computer systems. As such they do not occupy an entire room but usually occupy space similar in size to that of a standard refrigerator.
• They are much less expensive than the mainframes.
• Their invention was possible because of the invention of core memory technologies and transistors.
• Minicomputers can can give parallel access to up to 100 users. Hence they were used in places such as business organizations for maintaining billings and finances.
• Some of the very first companies to manufacture the minicomputer systems were Hewlett Packard, DEC and Data General.

A few models of minicomputers which have been a marked success over the years are:

• DEC VAX series and PDP series
• Hewlett Packard HP3000 series
• SDS,SDS-92
• Prime Computers, Prime 50 Series
• Norsk Data, Nord-1, Nord-10, Nord-100
• IBM Midrange Computers
• Control Data Corporation's CDC 160A, CDC-1700
• Data General Nova
• Honeywell-Bull Level 6/DPS Level6/DPS 6000 series

Minicomputers have eventually evolved in to microcomputers. With the launch of microcomputers, the public have had a greater access to the advantage of incorporating computers in the daily stride of their lives.