Classes of computer
Konand Zuse developed a
1. Analog Computer
2. Digital Computer
3. Hybrid Computer (Analog + Digital)
4. Super Computer
5. Mainframe Computer
6. Mini Computer
7. Micro Computer or Personal Computer
ANALOG COMPUTER
Analog computer is that computer, which is use to
process continuously varying data. Everything we see
and hear is change continuously. This changeable
continuous stream of data is called analog data. Analog
computer can be used in scientific and industrial
applications such as measure the electrical current,
frequency and resistance of capacitor, etc.
Analog computer that performs arithmetical operation
by measurable quantities, such as mechanical
movement, the rotation of gears rather than by number.
In Analog computers, data is transmitted for its
operation in the form of continuous signals, while in
digital computers in the form discrete signals (or
discontinuous signal).
Examples of analog computer are temperature,
pressure, telephone lines, Speedometer, resistance of
capacitor, frequency of signal and voltage etc.
Difference between analog and digital computer
Both of analog and digital computer have their own uses
and misuses.
• Digital computer shows result in form of monitor or
other output devices while analog computer shows
results in the form of voltage signals.
• Digital computer uses electronic circuits. While analog
computer use resistor for flow of continuous signal.
• Analog computer cannot be produced repeated result
with exact equivalence, which means analog computers
are less accurate as compared to digital computers.
• Analog computers are used where exact values are not
always required such as temperature and speed. While
Digital computers are used where exact values required.
• As comparing with speed, analog computers are slower
and less reliable whereas Digital computers are faster.
DIGITAL COMPUTER
The successful general purpose mechanical computers
were developed. In 1930, mechanical calculations were
built for automatic addition, subtraction, multiplication
& division. A calculator is not a programmable device.
The different eras of the Evolution of Digital Computers
are listed below:
Mechanical Era : There were many attempts to create a
m/c that could help to perform various calculations. In
1823, Charles Babbage tried to build a mechanical as
computing m/c capable of performing automatic
mathematical calculations. This was designed to
compute tables of functions such as logs functions etc. In
1830’s Babbage made a more powerful mechanical
computer. This m/c was designed to perform any
mathematical calculation automatically.
It could perform addition etc. It had a memory unit. Its
capacity was 1000 numbers, each no. consisting of 50
digits. The m/c was a programmable m/c. It had
mechanism for enabling a program to change the
sequence of its operations automatically. In the late 19th
century punched cards were commercially used. Soon
IBM was formed in 1924.
mechanical computer, the Z1, in 1938 in Germany.
The Electronic Era : The first electronic computer using.
Valves were developed by John V. Atanas off in the late
1930’s. It contained add subtract unit. It was relatively a
small computer and used about 300 valves. Its memory
unit consisted of capacitors mounted on a rotating drum.
It used a no. of I/O devices including a card punch and a
card reader. The first popular general electronic digital
computer was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Interpreter and calculator). John von Neumann was the
consultant of the ENIAC project.
The ENIAC used a high speed memory to store both
programs as well as data during program execution.
Neumann and his colleagues designed and build the IAS
Computers. It used RAM consisting of a cathode ray tube.
The transistors were invented in 1948 at AT&T bell
laboratories. Slowly they replaced Vacuum tubes. IC’s
were first introduced, ie, designed and fabricated in
1958-59. The examples of computers using IC’s are-: IBM
– 370 & PDP-8. In 1970 LSI chips were introduced is form
of memory units. Computers built in 1970’s & onwards
used micro process and other LSI, VLSI and ULSI
components.
HYBRID COMPUTER (ANALOG + DIGITAL)
A combination of computers those are capable of
inputting and outputting in both digital and analog
signals. A hybrid computer system setup offers a cost
effective method of performing complex simulations.
SUPER COMPUTER
A supercomputer is the fastest computer in the
world that can process a significant amount of data very
quickly. The computing Performance of a
“supercomputer” is measured very high as compared to
a general purpose computer. The computing
Performance of a supercomputer is measured in FLOPS
(that is floating-point operations per second) instead of
MIPS. The supercomputer consists of tens of thousands
of processors which can perform billions and trillions of
calculations per second
They have evolved from grid to cluster system of
massively parallel computing. Cluster system computing
means that machine uses multiple processors in one
system instead of arrays of separate computers in a
network.
These computers are most massive concerning
size. A most powerful supercomputer can occupy few
feet to hundreds of feet. The supercomputer price is very
high, and they can vary from 2 lakh dollar to over 100
million dollars.
Supercomputers were introduced in the 1960s
and developed by Seymour Cray with the Atlas at the
University of Manchester. The Cray designed CDC 1604
which was the first supercomputer in the world, and it
replaces vacuum tube with transistors.
Characteristics of Supercomputer
• They can support more than a hundred users
at a time.
• These machines are capable of handling the
massive amount of calculations that are beyond the
human capabilities, i.e., the human is unable to solve
such extensive calculations.
• Many individuals can access supercomputers
at the same time.
• These are the most expensive computers that
can ever be made.
Features of Supercomputer
• They have more than 1 CPU (Central Processing
Unit) which contains instructions so that it can interpret
instructions and execute arithmetic and logical
operations.
• The supercomputer can support extremely
high computation speed of CPUs.
• They can operate on pairs of lists of numbers
instead of pairs of numbers.
• They were used initially in applications related
to national security, nuclear weapon design, and
cryptography. But nowadays they are also employed by
the aerospace, automotive and petroleum industries.
Uses of Supercomputer
• Supercomputers are not used for everyday
tasks because of their superiority.
• Supercomputer handles those applications,
which required the real-time processing. The uses are as
follows:
• They’re used for scientific simulations and
research such as weather forecasting, meteorology,
nuclear energy research, physics, and chemistry, as well
as for extremely complex animated graphics. They are
also used to interpret new diseases and predict illness
behavior and treatment.
• The military uses supercomputers for testing
new air crafts, tanks, and weapons. They also use them
to understand the effect on soldiers and wars. These
machines are also used for encrypting the data.
• Scientists use them to test the impact of
nuclear weapon detonation.
• Hollywood uses supercomputers for the
creation of animations.
• In entertainment, supercomputers are used for
online gaming.
Supercomputers help in stabilizing the game
performance when a lot of users are playing the game.
MAINFRAME
The Definition and meaning of mainframe has shifted
from its original reference to the main housing, or frame,
that contained the central processing unit (CPU) of the
computer. In those days, all computers were big-like the
size of a garage and the frame for the CPU might have
been as big as a walk-in closet. Now mainframe refers to
the kind of large computer that runs an entire
corporation.
While “large” can still mean as big as a room, most of
today’s “mainframes” are much smaller, although
they’re still quite a bit bigger than a personal computer
or even a minicomputer. A mainframe has an enormous
storage space on disk and tape (like thousands of
kilobytes, measured in gigabytes), and an enormous
amount of main memory. Theoretically, it works a lot
faster than the fastest personal computer. A mainframe
also costs big bucks, from half a million or so on up.
In today’s world where all the business, transactions,
communications are real time. So to perform all this task,
a powerful computer require on the server side, which
processes the instructions and provides the output in
seconds. According to the usage of computers in today’s
world, we can categories computer in Supercomputer,
Mainframe Computer, and Mini Computer and
microcomputer categories. A mainframe computer is the
fastest computer after supercomputer to execute
complex and lengthy calculations. A mainframe
computer is more powerful than Mini and
Microcomputer, but less powerful than Supercomputer.
A mainframe computer is used in the large organization.
A mainframe computer is a combination of memory
(RAM) and many processors. It acts as a central
processing unit for many workstations and terminals
connected with it. A mainframe computer is used to
process the large and huge amount of data in petabytes.
It can control thousands of user ’s. Name ‘Mainframe’
means that a frame for holding a number of processors
and main memory. Mainframe computer plays a
significant role in e-business where hundreds to
thousands of people connect to a server to precede their
request in a real time. Similarly, In banking, government,
education system mainframe computer play a valuable
role.
Components of Mainframe computer
Mainframe computer provide reliable and secure
process execution. Mainframe computer has some
components to perform task.
CPU: CPU contains the processors, memory, control
circuits, and interfaces for channels. A channel is an
independent path between I/O devices and memory.
This path is used for data movements and for controlling
the computer components.
Controllers: Channels are used to connect devices with
control units. Channel is also known as a bus. In
Mainframe computer, the different control unit (internal
circuit and logic) is used for different -different devices
like tape, disk. Control unit is further connected with
storage unit.
Cluster controller: Cluster controller is a device to
connect channel terminal to host system. Cluster
controls have two types
Channel-attached cluster controllers and link-attached
cluster controllers.
Cluster controllers provide advanced features like IBM
Token Ring attachment interfaces, management, and
monitoring.
I/O channels: During I/O connectivity, we used some
term like IOCDS, ESCON, FICON, CHIPD’s having unique
definitions and purpose.
ICODS: ICODS stands for I/O control data set. It is a
control file in I/O layer to translate physical I/O address
into device address.
ESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection): is a first IBM
and vendor product for connecting more than one
mainframe computer and with locally attached
workstations. It is Fiber Optic channel to transfer the
data with the maximum speed of 17 MByte/ s. We can
extend the local to mainframe network up to 60 km. It
has some limitations regarding speed and network area.
To make it better IBM next version was FICON. FICON
(fiber connector) is used to increase the transfer speed
of ESCON channel. One Ficon connector is equal to eight
ESCON connector.
Multiprocessors: Multiprocessors indicate that number
of processors. Multiple processors in mainframe
computer used some Prefix Storage Area to process the
data (For error handling and interrupt handling). Using
special instruction set processor can communicate with
another processor using special instruction set.
The advantage of mainframe computer
Mainframe computer has many advantages as well as
disadvantages. From the last 50 years, there was a great
revolution in mainframe computer in all field like size,
processing speed, data transfer speed, security, and
flexibility.
• Mainframe computer provides a great security against
the attack of viruses, warm, spyware, malware.
Encryption technique like file encryption, data set and
file encryption, network encryption, clustering
encryption empower security.
• Mainframe computers are compatible with all types of
software and hardware. Because different user connects
with servers along with different hardware and software
on their system. They can easily communicate with
server-side without any interrupt.
• Mainframe computer deals with thousands of users to
execute their instructions simultaneously. And can store
• Without disturbing process on the computer, we can
add storage, processors or memory and extend its
capability.
With some advantages, it has some disadvantage
• A mainframe computer is expensive. It is not easy to
purchase a mainframe as a comparison to the
microcomputer.The microcomputer is handled by the
single user, but mainframe handled many users.
Installation is not easy.
MINICOMPUTER
A minicomputer is also known as mini. It is a class of small
computers that was introduced into the world in the
mid-1960s. A minicomputer is a computer which has all
the features of a large size computer, but its size is
smaller than those. A minicomputer lies between the
mainframe and the microcomputer because its size is
smaller than the former one and larger than the latter
one. A minicomputer is also called as a mid-range
computer. Minicomputers are mainly multi-users
systems where more than one user can work
simultaneously. Mini computer examples: IBM’s
AS/400e, Honeywell200, TI-990.
Minicomputer can support multi-users at a time or you
can say that minicomputer is a multiprocessing system.
Also, the power of processing of minicomputers is not
larger than the power of mainframe and
supercomputers. These minicomputers can do time-
sharing, batch processing, and online processing.
Size of Minicomputer
The size of minicomputers can range from 12 inches in
width to less than 7. This small size is especially attractive
to students because they can use it anywhere they want.
History of Minicomputer
The term minicomputer was come to know in the 1960s
and through that time only the small computers are
made by making the use of transistors and core memory
technologies. The first minicomputer which was
developed was known as Digital Equipment Corporation,
which was made by using transistors and it costs from
the US $16000.
Types of minicomputer
The types of minicomputer are- tablet PC, Desktop
minicomputers, cell phones, notebooks, high-end mP3
players, etc.
Uses of minicomputer
Each person using a minicomputer has their own
terminal attached by wires or via a modem to the
computer proper. (A terminal isn’t a computer-it’s
basically just a keyboard and a monitor) The
minicomputer spends a little bit of time on one person’s
task, then moves on to the next, and so on, juggling the
work based on which jobs it thinks are most important.
If you’re the only one using a minicomputer, this can be
one fast machine.
But once many users (people) are “on” the system, the
thing begins to slow down-you may type something and
then wait for a minute or more before you see a response
on the screen. Minicomputers used to be the only option
for companies. Now, many firms are turning to networks
of personal computers to accomplish the same thing
faster and cheaper.
They were used for three primary purposes:
Process control
Minicomputers are primarily used by the companies for
the manufacturing control of the process. Process
Control has two primary functions- data acquisition and
feedback.
Ex:- factories make use of minicomputers to control the
manufacturing process. If any problem appears in any
part of the process, then it recognizes the change and
made required adjustments.
Data management
Minicomputers that we use for the data management
can do any task regarding data like it can take, restore or
generate data.
Communication
Minicomputers act as an interface between the human
operator and a larger processor. The user can run
operations such as error checking with the help of
minicomputer and then can use the device for making
adjustments also.
The other uses are as follows:
• They are also used for scientific computations.
• Used for business-transaction processing.
• Used for database management.
• Used for file handling
• Used for engineering computations.
Components of Microcomputer
All Microcomputer are based on same principle like
having CPU for processing data ,memory for storing data
and input output devices , but many types
microcomputers are available in market .This difference
in microcomputer is due to the use of various types of
data bus and address bus. Data bus and address bus is
used for data and address supply. Capacity is measure in
form of bits like 32 bit data bus or 64 bit data bus.

MICRO COMPUTER or PERSONAL COMPUTER

Micro Computer is a small computer. Your personal

computers are equivalent to the microcomputer.
Mainframe and Mini Computer is ancestor of
microcomputer. Integrated Circuit fabrication
technology reduces the size of Mainframe and
Minicomputer.
Technically, a microcomputer is a computer in which the
CPU (central processing unit, the brains of the computer)
is contained on one single chip, a microprocessor,
input/output devices and storage (memory) unit. All
these components are important for a proper working of
microcomputer.

Types of Micro Computer

Most workstations are also types of micro computer, for
the same reason, although some personal computer is as
fast as the fastest workstation. And a computer used by
more than one person (a multi-user computer) is still a
microcomputer as long as it has a microprocessor for its
CPU.
Notebook
Notebook is the smallest microcomputer, which can be
ultra-mobile3 inches thick with less than 3 pounds
lightweight and smaller than a briefcase, allow for easy
setup in a room. A notebook can be effectively
connected to the Internet ISP via a cable or Wi-Fi.
Laptop
Laptop microcomputer is bigger than the notebook
computer powered by a battery and designed for low
power consumption, which can be smaller than a
briefcase. Although laptops and desktop computers have
same capabilities. A laptop also has a thin display screen
with attached keyboard and a touch pad used for
navigation.
Desktop
Desktops are personal computers and bigger than
notebooks and laptops. These microcomputers consist of
the system unit, keyboard and monitor. Desktop
microcomputers are cheaper than laptops or notebooks.
Unlike a notebook,which is ultra-mobile, a desktop micro
computeris stay at one location. The desktop
microcomputers are more reliable than notebooks and
laptops and easy to repair.