Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). Formerly this class formed a distinct group with its own hardware and operating systems. While the distinction between mainframe computers and smaller computers remains fairly clear, contemporary middle-range computers are not well differentiated from personal computers, being typically just a more powerful but still compatible version of personal computer. More modern terms for minicomputer-type machines include midrange systems (IBM parlance), workstations (Sun Microsystems and general UNIX/Linux parlance), and servers.
That was considered to be a great advance. At first, it had to be done with paper punches and readers. Or, switches on the front panel. You actually switched in the 1's and 0's.
Back in high school, I actually used to go to the university with my buddy and we'd use the punch card stack to run programs through their multi-room sized computer (his dad was a professor). Ah, those were the days.
Back in high school, I actually used to go to the university with my buddy and we'd use the punch card stack to run programs through their multi-room sized computer (his dad was a professor). Ah, those were the days.
That's before my time, but my Dad still has the rectangular boxes he carried around his punch cards in, and some 8.5" floppy discs too!
Nobody would buy the midrange tower if it cost the same or more than the iMac.
If you think nobody would pay $1,200 for a mid-range tower because it doesn't have a monitor, then who the heck would want to pay $2,500 for a Full Tower. Rarely do I see a MacPro being used to half its potential.
I've set-up hundreds of computers for a variety of businesses, the Mac was always the most expensive upgrade, especially if they're upgrading from an iMac. They're given a choice between another iMac or a mac mini, both are usually discouraging to business owners.
It is obvious from this thread there are many who want the xMac including myself. I cannot settle for a mac mini, nor the iMac, my work requires me to have two monitors stacked and maybe a new Wacom Cintiq.
I don't care if Apple takes the current mac mini and turns it into a cube by a adding two PCI slots, and calls it xMac. That is good enough for me and many businesses.
Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). Formerly this class formed a distinct group with its own hardware and operating systems. While the distinction between mainframe computers and smaller computers remains fairly clear, contemporary middle-range computers are not well differentiated from personal computers, being typically just a more powerful but still compatible version of personal computer. More modern terms for minicomputer-type machines include midrange systems (IBM parlance), workstations (Sun Microsystems and general UNIX/Linux parlance), and servers.
Heh...I got "gifted" a PDP-11...which I promptly gave to my roommate who really wanted it. God knows if he still has it in his basement heating the house.
We tried to create a computer company that sold 68K based SVR4 unix workstations. That went so-so but for a brief moment in time we had hardware prototypes, semi-working software and a brochure. Wish I had kept one. Brochure anyway...the machines were kinda dogs. This was maybe...1987?
Heh...I got "gifted" a PDP-11...which I promptly gave to my roommate who really wanted it. God knows if he still has it in his basement heating the house.
We tried to create a computer company that sold 68K based SVR4 unix workstations. That went so-so but for a brief moment in time we had hardware prototypes, semi-working software and a brochure. Wish I had kept one. Brochure anyway...the machines were kinda dogs. This was maybe...1987?
Too bad you couldn't have held out a little longer. Today, you might have been a WorkStation billionaire. Look at Michael Dell. I understand though; I've had two businesses that I've tried to hang onto with my fingernails. No go.
Heh...the first I owned personally was the Atari 800. I learned Z80 assembly on the TRS-80 and remember programming Lunar Lander in Basic for the little hand-held TRS pocket computer (made by Sharp or someone) that my mom had.
Cute little guy. I've always wondered what happened to it. Mom doesn't even remember owning the thing. Somewhere in the house I have an Atari Portfolio so I've always been a fan of little computers.
The iMac numbers did quickly diminish after that, and it took seemingly forever for Mac sales to go back to those numbers.
Yah, true. But the G4 iMac was also a thing of beauty...if you liked it. It was a dumb looking lamp if you didn't.
There's not much you can say for the Mac II. It was a brick with a monitor on top. At least the Power Macs and Mac Pros have a little style.
Quote:
Be actually had a pretty good OS. Apple probably wouldn't have dominated the audio player market as a result though.
I really don't see xMac and much of the current Apple being mutually exclusive.
More like xMac and Jobs are mutually exclusive.
Be...I always thought that NeXTSTeP embodied the principle of "power of unix, grace of a mac" better...given that it WAS a unix and had unified, elegant UI. Certainly Be had an elegance all its own but with an unfinished feel. Its a shame that Palm didn't opensource the original codebase although it seems Haiku is pretty far along.
Not only would we not have the iPod but we'd likely be missing the Apple Store (online and real), iLife, iWorks, etc. Gassee was no Jobs.
Upgrading my Mac 128K to 512K in 1984 - over $900, and that was with the what was then a substantial (40%) academic discount.
$900 for an extra 384K.
The IBM 360/67 I used in college had 512K of ferrite core memory and cost millions of dollars. It made a virtual machine that ran the big batch jobs at night - the VM had a megabyte of virtual memory on the real 512K. VM paging was done from a rotating drum with a line of read heads.
As the virtual machines today do, the 360/67 emulated a 360/65 for every logged-in or batch user, so different OSes could be run and each thought they were on a real machine. The 67 could even make a VM that would emulate itself, so that the systems programmers could test the system on a virtual 67 without bringing down the real 67.
Upgrading my Mac 128K to 512K in 1984 - over $900, and that was with the what was then a substantial (40%) academic discount.
$900 for an extra 384K.
The IBM 360/67 I used in college had 512K of ferrite core memory and cost millions of dollars. It made a virtual machine that ran the big batch jobs at night - the VM had a megabyte of virtual memory on the real 512K. VM paging was done from a rotating drum with a line of read heads.
As the virtual machines today do, the 360/67 emulated a 360/65 for every logged-in or batch user, so different OSes could be run and each thought they were on a real machine. The 67 could even make a VM that would emulate itself, so that the systems programmers could test the system on a virtual 67 without bringing down the real 67.
In late 1998, Intel said that Flash would come down to $100 per MB by 2000. Yes, for all of you teenagers out there, $100 per MB.
They made that sometime late 2000. This was, by todays standards, slow. 1X speeds. About the speed as a 1x speed CD player. 150 KBs.
Today you can get 8 GB Flash for a little over $100, and it is 266x speed.
That's 8,000 as much Flash, running 266 times faster for the same price.
About three or so years ago, I bought a 128MB Flash drive for $60. Now, some of the computer shops around here are selling 8GB for $79.95 and I got an ad the other day for a 1 GB for $9.95. However, I think the prices are going to go higher. Micro Center was selling 2 GB USB drives for $15.00 (sometimes $13). The last ad I got had the 2GB for $18 or $19. Low supply, high demand.
Upgrading my Mac 128K to 512K in 1984 - over $900, and that was with the what was then a substantial (40%) academic discount.
$900 for an extra 384K.
The IBM 360/67 I used in college had 512K of ferrite core memory and cost millions of dollars. It made a virtual machine that ran the big batch jobs at night - the VM had a megabyte of virtual memory on the real 512K. VM paging was done from a rotating drum with a line of read heads.
As the virtual machines today do, the 360/67 emulated a 360/65 for every logged-in or batch user, so different OSes could be run and each thought they were on a real machine. The 67 could even make a VM that would emulate itself, so that the systems programmers could test the system on a virtual 67 without bringing down the real 67.
You have a good memory. I don't recall nomenclature for "way back when". I had a class in Fortran at FIU in the late 70's and typed my programs on what looked like a typewriter on steroids. The mainframe would compile them and print them out in the printing room halfway down the hall. I got a lot of walking exercise. I always had to wait until one of the stations would be free. Although my class began at 9 PM, I never got out of the lab until 2 or 3 in the morning. FIU had a few monitors in the early 80's, but the 'gray' on black was hard to read. I recall thinking, "Monitors are NOT here to stay." Boy, was I wrong.
This morning while at the airport waiting for my flight to leave, there were 7 people using laptop computers. 5 of them were Macs.
I seem to see this every time I travel. Am I just drawn to the Macs, or is there a higher user base than what is referenced?
Most of the PCs will be in for repair.
I tend to see more Macs than PCs but when I visit one of my relatives, they usually have a PC. I think the Mac user base is underestimated but it's still low and most PC owners will have a desktop so you won't notice the number so much.
Comments
I seem to recall 8" disks. What were those for?
I recall a HDD with a 8" platter from IBM. Mid-sized...like...um a breadbox size.
Vinea
I recall a HDD with a 8" platter from IBM. Mid-sized...like...um a breadbox size.
Vinea
Remember these, Vinea? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomputer
Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). Formerly this class formed a distinct group with its own hardware and operating systems. While the distinction between mainframe computers and smaller computers remains fairly clear, contemporary middle-range computers are not well differentiated from personal computers, being typically just a more powerful but still compatible version of personal computer. More modern terms for minicomputer-type machines include midrange systems (IBM parlance), workstations (Sun Microsystems and general UNIX/Linux parlance), and servers.
That was considered to be a great advance. At first, it had to be done with paper punches and readers. Or, switches on the front panel. You actually switched in the 1's and 0's.
Back in high school, I actually used to go to the university with my buddy and we'd use the punch card stack to run programs through their multi-room sized computer (his dad was a professor). Ah, those were the days.
My brother's first personal computer.
My dad's first personal computer.
My first personal computer. (Not the first computer I used, just owned).
Back in high school, I actually used to go to the university with my buddy and we'd use the punch card stack to run programs through their multi-room sized computer (his dad was a professor). Ah, those were the days.
That's before my time, but my Dad still has the rectangular boxes he carried around his punch cards in, and some 8.5" floppy discs too!
Says the guy that wants to claim that the "mac was dying when Jobs left"
Mac wasn't dying but at least according to Apple
and the
"Apple's sales numbers didn't rise too much from the iMac" (number one selling computer in 4th qtr 1998...held for a 5 month period).
The iMac numbers did quickly diminish after that, and it took seemingly forever for Mac sales to go back to those numbers.
If Apple had bought Be instead of NeXT and we had Gassee instead of Jobs you'd have your xMac and Apple would suck.
Be actually had a pretty good OS. Apple probably wouldn't have dominated the audio player market as a result though.
I really don't see xMac and much of the current Apple being mutually exclusive.
I've set-up hundreds of computers for a variety of businesses, the Mac was always the most expensive upgrade, especially if they're upgrading from an iMac. They're given a choice between another iMac or a mac mini, both are usually discouraging to business owners.
It is obvious from this thread there are many who want the xMac including myself. I cannot settle for a mac mini, nor the iMac, my work requires me to have two monitors stacked and maybe a new Wacom Cintiq.
I don't care if Apple takes the current mac mini and turns it into a cube by a adding two PCI slots, and calls it xMac. That is good enough for me and many businesses.
Remember these, Vinea? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomputer
Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). Formerly this class formed a distinct group with its own hardware and operating systems. While the distinction between mainframe computers and smaller computers remains fairly clear, contemporary middle-range computers are not well differentiated from personal computers, being typically just a more powerful but still compatible version of personal computer. More modern terms for minicomputer-type machines include midrange systems (IBM parlance), workstations (Sun Microsystems and general UNIX/Linux parlance), and servers.
Heh...I got "gifted" a PDP-11...which I promptly gave to my roommate who really wanted it. God knows if he still has it in his basement heating the house.
We tried to create a computer company that sold 68K based SVR4 unix workstations. That went so-so but for a brief moment in time we had hardware prototypes, semi-working software and a brochure. Wish I had kept one. Brochure anyway...the machines were kinda dogs.
Heh...I got "gifted" a PDP-11...which I promptly gave to my roommate who really wanted it. God knows if he still has it in his basement heating the house.
We tried to create a computer company that sold 68K based SVR4 unix workstations. That went so-so but for a brief moment in time we had hardware prototypes, semi-working software and a brochure. Wish I had kept one. Brochure anyway...the machines were kinda dogs.
Too bad you couldn't have held out a little longer. Today, you might have been a WorkStation billionaire. Look at Michael Dell. I understand though; I've had two businesses that I've tried to hang onto with my fingernails. No go.
Getting all misty-eyed...
My brother's first personal computer.
My dad's first personal computer.
My first personal computer. (Not the first computer I used, just owned).
Heh...the first I owned personally was the Atari 800. I learned Z80 assembly on the TRS-80 and remember programming Lunar Lander in Basic for the little hand-held TRS pocket computer (made by Sharp or someone) that my mom had.
Cute little guy. I've always wondered what happened to it. Mom doesn't even remember owning the thing. Somewhere in the house I have an Atari Portfolio so I've always been a fan of little computers.
Vinea
The iMac numbers did quickly diminish after that, and it took seemingly forever for Mac sales to go back to those numbers.
Yah, true. But the G4 iMac was also a thing of beauty...if you liked it. It was a dumb looking lamp if you didn't.
There's not much you can say for the Mac II. It was a brick with a monitor on top. At least the Power Macs and Mac Pros have a little style.
Be actually had a pretty good OS. Apple probably wouldn't have dominated the audio player market as a result though.
I really don't see xMac and much of the current Apple being mutually exclusive.
More like xMac and Jobs are mutually exclusive.
Be...I always thought that NeXTSTeP embodied the principle of "power of unix, grace of a mac" better...given that it WAS a unix and had unified, elegant UI. Certainly Be had an elegance all its own but with an unfinished feel. Its a shame that Palm didn't opensource the original codebase although it seems Haiku is pretty far along.
Not only would we not have the iPod but we'd likely be missing the Apple Store (online and real), iLife, iWorks, etc. Gassee was no Jobs.
Vinea
There's not much you can say for the Mac II. It was a brick with a monitor on top.
Yep, I bought one, with the 12" monochrome monitor and the 13" color.
Apple found out later that more than 95% of owners never put another card in any of the slots.
At one point, Radio Shack sold a 5 meg HDD for around $4000.
I seem to recall 8" disks. What were those for?
If memory serves, my first desk top had no HDD and you needed 2 - 51/4" floppies. My first HDD was a 20 meg ramped to 30 meg (RLL).
We have seen a remarkable ascent in the last 30 years.
There were larger floppies than 5.25". 8 inch came first.
I almost bought a 3.125 MB HDD for $3.250. But then I woke up.
Look at Flash.
In late 1998, Intel said that Flash would come down to $100 per MB by 2000. Yes, for all of you teenagers out there, $100 per MB.
They made that sometime late 2000. This was, by todays standards, slow. 1X speeds. About the speed as a 1x speed CD player. 150 KBs.
Today you can get 8 GB Flash for a little over $100, and it is 266x speed.
That's 8,000 as much Flash, running 266 times faster for the same price.
$900 for an extra 384K.
The IBM 360/67 I used in college had 512K of ferrite core memory and cost millions of dollars. It made a virtual machine that ran the big batch jobs at night - the VM had a megabyte of virtual memory on the real 512K. VM paging was done from a rotating drum with a line of read heads.
As the virtual machines today do, the 360/67 emulated a 360/65 for every logged-in or batch user, so different OSes could be run and each thought they were on a real machine. The 67 could even make a VM that would emulate itself, so that the systems programmers could test the system on a virtual 67 without bringing down the real 67.
Upgrading my Mac 128K to 512K in 1984 - over $900, and that was with the what was then a substantial (40%) academic discount.
$900 for an extra 384K.
The IBM 360/67 I used in college had 512K of ferrite core memory and cost millions of dollars. It made a virtual machine that ran the big batch jobs at night - the VM had a megabyte of virtual memory on the real 512K. VM paging was done from a rotating drum with a line of read heads.
As the virtual machines today do, the 360/67 emulated a 360/65 for every logged-in or batch user, so different OSes could be run and each thought they were on a real machine. The 67 could even make a VM that would emulate itself, so that the systems programmers could test the system on a virtual 67 without bringing down the real 67.
Amazing how things have changed isn't it?
Look at Flash.
In late 1998, Intel said that Flash would come down to $100 per MB by 2000. Yes, for all of you teenagers out there, $100 per MB.
They made that sometime late 2000. This was, by todays standards, slow. 1X speeds. About the speed as a 1x speed CD player. 150 KBs.
Today you can get 8 GB Flash for a little over $100, and it is 266x speed.
That's 8,000 as much Flash, running 266 times faster for the same price.
About three or so years ago, I bought a 128MB Flash drive for $60. Now, some of the computer shops around here are selling 8GB for $79.95 and I got an ad the other day for a 1 GB for $9.95. However, I think the prices are going to go higher. Micro Center was selling 2 GB USB drives for $15.00 (sometimes $13). The last ad I got had the 2GB for $18 or $19. Low supply, high demand.
Upgrading my Mac 128K to 512K in 1984 - over $900, and that was with the what was then a substantial (40%) academic discount.
$900 for an extra 384K.
The IBM 360/67 I used in college had 512K of ferrite core memory and cost millions of dollars. It made a virtual machine that ran the big batch jobs at night - the VM had a megabyte of virtual memory on the real 512K. VM paging was done from a rotating drum with a line of read heads.
As the virtual machines today do, the 360/67 emulated a 360/65 for every logged-in or batch user, so different OSes could be run and each thought they were on a real machine. The 67 could even make a VM that would emulate itself, so that the systems programmers could test the system on a virtual 67 without bringing down the real 67.
You have a good memory. I don't recall nomenclature for "way back when". I had a class in Fortran at FIU in the late 70's and typed my programs on what looked like a typewriter on steroids. The mainframe would compile them and print them out in the printing room halfway down the hall. I got a lot of walking exercise. I always had to wait until one of the stations would be free. Although my class began at 9 PM, I never got out of the lab until 2 or 3 in the morning. FIU had a few monitors in the early 80's, but the 'gray' on black was hard to read. I recall thinking, "Monitors are NOT here to stay." Boy, was I wrong.
I seem to see this every time I travel. Am I just drawn to the Macs, or is there a higher user base than what is referenced?
This morning while at the airport waiting for my flight to leave, there were 7 people using laptop computers. 5 of them were Macs.
I seem to see this every time I travel. Am I just drawn to the Macs, or is there a higher user base than what is referenced?
Most of the PCs will be in for repair.
I tend to see more Macs than PCs but when I visit one of my relatives, they usually have a PC. I think the Mac user base is underestimated but it's still low and most PC owners will have a desktop so you won't notice the number so much.