Talk:Minicomputer
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[edit] Minicomputer == personal computer? I'd disagree
I started editing this article, and quickly realized that I disagree with its central premise, which is that the minicomputer range has been (completely?) replaced by the personal computer and PC-derived servers.
Although the low end server space is robust and growing and is indeed based on systems that are essentially racked PCs, there is still a class of systems that are not PCs, and are not mainframes: the high-end SPARC, POWER, and Itanium systems from Sun, IBM and HP. Although these systems are pushing way up into the mainframe space, and are often promoted as "mainframe class," they're still not mainframes. They're also still a significantly different architecture from PC-based servers, although there's a growing similarity. I'd argue that these are the heirs to the minicomputer niche in the server ecosystem.
Before overhauling the article, I thought I'd see if anyone wanted to kick this around for a bit, but if no one else cares, I'll probably come back and make some significant changes in a few days.
In the end, I think the article should focus on the historical mainframes of the '70s and '80s, but there does need to be an explanation of how the industry has evolved since then.--NapoliRoma 20:27, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Terminology/Timeline
Agree also with the previous post, there should be little difficulty differentiating between minicomputer systems and personal computers, at least throughout the 1980's and 1990's. It was mostly an architectural distinction: at first minicomputers were 16 and 32 bit while the PC was 8 or 16 bit. The minicomputer was designed for multi-user, multi-tasking use with a very fast backplane and intelligent driver cards which would support large amount of peripherals, including disk and other types of storage. For the most part, it was the latter 1990's when microcomputer-based servers began to approach this type of power, and even into this decade for the typical desktop computer. Think of the minicomputer as the rack mounted PC server with multiple CPUs and you get an idea of the relative power and capability. It's also worth noting that many large companies are still quite happily running their minicomputers, for example look at how many very large OpenVMS or IBM System1 (AS/400) systems are in use.
Also, the section titled "Mid-1980s, 1990s: The minis give way to the micros" correctly speaks of the decline of the minicomputer but as I worked in this industry from the early 1980's onward I would disagree with the timeline. My perspective will be skewed to large corporate environments, small offices were more likely to move quickly to a PC-based solution because they didn't have a mainframe or even a minicomputer.
I cannot think of a lot of cases where minicomputers were replaced with networked workstations/servers/PCs in the 80's. Throughout the 1980's the PC was really not a business class machine but it did start appearing in corporate environments as a custom 'one-of' solution where a local application or database might needed that had no connection to a corporate network, to control specific technical systems (instrumentation, manufacturing systems, etc). By mid-1980's our ratio of PCs to mainframe/minicomputer terminals was about 5 PCs in 1000 desktops or less than 1%.
Even at the start of the 90's the wide use of terminal emulation (which was finally mature enough to be useful) allowed more dumb terminals to be removed but serious computing was still relegated to the minicomputer - often as a departmental- or site-based resource that still connected to a mainframe with corporate data. By that point a local workgroup might in fact have their own server, for example a group doing computer assisted design (CAD) might have a CAD application server and 'power' desktop systems, but in most corporate environments the data was very often served from a minicomputer (or even through a version control system on a mainframe).
So, the issue of desktop versus server (similar to mainframe) is one that could use some explanation and I would also agree that the newer content could be moved elsewhere, a chart or table showing the progression might be good.
Suggestions about how much of this should be added to balance the PC-centric side of this topic are also welcome.
CRM384 (talk) 22:46, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Commented-out paragraph
I moved this paragraph from the article to here for consideration (edit comments don't belong in the article itself). I moved it from the bottom of the "The minicomputer’s industrial impact and heritage" section:
- <!-- the following pgph is redundant wrt the above; could perhaps be 'merged'(?) --wernher -->
- <!-- --<
- Today at the turn of the millennium few minicomputers are still in use, having been overtaken by Fourth Generation computers built using a more robust version of the microprocessor technology that is used in personal computers. These are referred to as “servers,” taking the name from the server software that they run (typically file server and back-end database software, including email and web server software).
Do with it what you may... — Frecklefσσt | Talk 14:51, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Millicomputer?
Would I be correct in assuming minicomputers (1950s-1960s-early 1970s) were misnomers for machines that executed a singular instruction in a matter of milliseconds?
Would I be correct in assuming that microcomputers (late 1970s-1980s-1990s) are misnomers for personal computers that executed a singular instruction in a matter of microseconds?Anwar (talk) 20:39, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] New meaning of "minicomputer"
Recently, it seems that at least some of the IT press has reinvented the term "minicomputer", this time meaning a small microcomputer. Whereas the typical modern desktop (not laptop) microcomputer is about half a metre tall and weighs several kilogram, I figure a new "mini-microcomputer", what the press is already calling a "mini", would be only a few decimetres tall and weigh less than a kilogram. JIP | Talk 11:46, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
