The debate on what per say is a mini...

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Fri Dec 15 14:26:10 2000

At 12:58 PM 12/15/00 -0700, Jim wrote:
>Last time this subject came up, it was pointed out to me that mainframes are
>much more batch oriented than micros or minis. They're designed to be fed
>their job, then left alone to plow through the data, then cough up a report -
>they're not optimised for direct user interaction.

There are lots of ways to "slice" this question. I have at various time used:
         if it runs on one 110V wall socket its a micro
         if it takes 220 and/or three phase its a mini
         if it takes 440 and its own voltage consditioning system its a
mainframe

Then there was
         if the "CPU" is one chip its a micro
         if the "CPU" is multiple chips/boards its a mini
         if the "CPU" is multiple cabinets its a mainframe

Things that have never worked are speed of memory and speed of computer.

You might use I/O capacity versus the compute capacity, perhaps as a
MIPS/MEGABYTE ratio. If the value is over 5 its a micro, less than five but
over 1 its a mini, and under 1 and its a mainframe.

--Chuck
Received on Fri Dec 15 2000 - 14:26:10 GMT