CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS

Computers are available in many sizes and types. They differ based on their data
processing abilities. Based on the physical size, performance and application areas
we can divide computers into four major categories viz
1) MICRO COMPUTERS
It is a small, low cost digital computer, which usually consists of a
microprocessor, a storage unit, an input channel and an output channel all
of which may be inserted into one chipinserted into one or several PC
boards. It is the smallest of the computer family and originally designed for
individual users. IBM-PC Pentium 200, Apple Macintosh are the examples of
microcomputers. They include the following
a) Desktop Computer
Also known as PC is intended for stand alone use by an individual. These
are the common type of computer and cosists of a system unit, a display
monitor, a keyboard, an internal hard disk storage and other peripheral
devices. They are not very expensive for the individual or the small
businesses.
b) Laptop:
It is a portable computer that a user can carry around. It is also know as
notebook computer. It includes all the features of a PC. They are
lightweight and can be used anywhere. They do not need any external
power supply as a rechargeable battery is self contained in them. They
are expensive than a PC.
c) Hand held computer:
These are portable computers that can be conveniently stored in
pocket.PDAs are essentially small portable computers and are slightly
bigger than a calculators. It uses pen or stylus for the input.

They are also called as palmtop computers. They do not have disk drive
rather they use small cards to store programs and data. They have
limited memory and are less powerful than desktop.

2) MINICOMPUTERS
It is a small digital computer which is able to process and store less data
than a mainframe but more than a microcomputer. It is about the size of a
two drawer filing cabinet. It meets the computing needs of several people
simultaneously in a small to medium sized business environment. It can
support 4-200 simultaneous users. It serves as a centralised store house for
a cluster of workstations or as a network server. Its used in interactive
applications in industries, research organisations.
3) MAINFRAMES
It is an ultra high performance computer made for high volume, processor
intensive computing. It consists of a high end computer processor with
related peripheral devices capable of supporting large volumes of data
processing, high performance online transaction processing and extensive
data storage and retrievel. It stores more data and performs at a faster rate
than a micro computer. These are the second largest of the computer
family. It is used by large organisatrions for sci3ntific purposes.
4) SUPERCOMPUTERS
These are the special purpose machines which are designed to maximise
the number of floating point operations per second(FLOPS). A
supercomputer has the highest processing speed at a given time for solving
scientific and engineering probles. It contains number of CPUs that operate
in parallel to make it faster. Its processing speed lies in the range 40010000 MFLOPS.
Supercomputers are used to solve multivariant mathematical problems of
existent physical processes, plasma physics.ex: CRAY-3, PARAM