minicomputers - meaning and definition. What is minicomputers
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What (who) is minicomputers - definition

CLASS OF COMPUTERS DEVELOPED IN THE 1960S, SMALLER THAN MAINFRAMES
Minicomputers; Mini-computer; Mini Computer; Mini computer; Mini computers; Mini-computers; List of minicomputers
  • serial number 1,}} on display at the [[Computer History Museum]]
  • [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (DEC) [[PDP-8]] on display at the [[National Museum of American History]]
  • A PDP-11, model 40, an early member of DEC's 16-bit minicomputer family, on display at the [[Vienna Technical Museum]]
  • Raytheon RDS 704 onsite seismic processing system in [[Mogadishu]] in 1974
  • Raytheon RDS 500 seismic processing system in [[Benghazi]] in 1978

Minicomputer         
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold for much less than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, The New York Times suggested a consensus definition of a minicomputer as a machine costing less than (), with an input-output device such as a teleprinter and at least four thousand words of memory, that is capable of running programs in a higher level language, such as Fortran or BASIC.
minicomputer         
¦ noun a computer of medium power, more than a microcomputer but less than a mainframe.
minicomputer         
<computer> A computer built between about 1963 and 1987, smaller and less powerful than a mainframe, typically about the size and shape of a wardrobe, mounted in a single tall rack. Minicomputers were characterised by short word lengths of 8 to 32 bits, limited hardware and software facilities and small physical size. Their low cost made them suitable for a wide variety of applications such as industrial control, where a small, dedicated computer which is permanently assigned to one application, is needed. In recent years, improvements in device technology have resulted in minicomputers which are comparable in performance to large {second generation computers} and greatly exceed the performance of {first generation} computers. The processor was typically built using low integration logic integrated circuits - TTL or maybe ECL, thus distinguishing it from a microcomputer which is built around a microprocessor - a processor on a single (or maybe a few) ICs. DEC's PDP-1 was the first minicomputer and their PDP-11 was the most successful, closely followed (in both time and success) by the VAX (which DEC called a "{super minicomputer}"). Another early minicomputer was the LINC developed at MIT in 1963. Other minicomputers were the AS/400, the PRIME series, the AP-3, Olivetti's Audit 7 and the Interdata 8/32. [Others?] (2004-05-12)

Wikipedia

Minicomputer

A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, The New York Times suggested a consensus definition of a minicomputer as a machine costing less than US$25,000 (equivalent to $174,000 in 2021), with an input-output device such as a teleprinter and at least four thousand words of memory, that is capable of running programs in a higher level language, such as Fortran or BASIC.

The class formed a distinct group with its own software architectures and operating systems. Minis were designed for control, instrumentation, human interaction, and communication switching as distinct from calculation and record keeping. Many were sold indirectly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for final end-use application. During the two-decade lifetime of the minicomputer class (1965–1985), almost 100 companies formed and only a half dozen remained.

When single-chip CPU microprocessors appeared, beginning with the Intel 4004 in 1971, the term "minicomputer" came to mean a machine that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the smallest mainframe computers and the microcomputers. The term "minicomputer" is seldom used today; the contemporary term for this class of system is "midrange computer", such as the higher-end SPARC from Oracle, Power ISA from IBM, and Itanium-based systems from Hewlett-Packard.