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Computer Types and Computer Generations

Mainframe computers are large general purpose computers capable of handling various scientific and commercial problems. They can accept data and transfer it at high speeds, support many terminals and peripheral devices, and have large storage capacities. Some examples are IBM 3090 and IBM 4300. Supercomputers are the largest and fastest computers designed for complex scientific applications using parallel processing.

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Yashika Madan
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28 views

Computer Types and Computer Generations

Mainframe computers are large general purpose computers capable of handling various scientific and commercial problems. They can accept data and transfer it at high speeds, support many terminals and peripheral devices, and have large storage capacities. Some examples are IBM 3090 and IBM 4300. Supercomputers are the largest and fastest computers designed for complex scientific applications using parallel processing.

Uploaded by

Yashika Madan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mainframe Computer

• The characteristics of the Main Frame computers are as :


1. These are big general purpose computers capable of handling all kinds of
problems whether scientific or Commercial.
2. It can accept and transfer data from I/O devices at the rate of Million bytes
per second.
3. It can accept all types of High Level Languages.
4. It can support a large number of terminals up to 100 or more.
5. They have large secondary storage capacities and can support a large number
and variety of peripheral devices like Magnetic Tape Drive, Hard Disk Drive etc.
6. They have high speed Cache memory due to which the speed of Mainframes
becomes larger than Micro or Mini Computer.
Application of Mainframe Computer
• Railway and Airline Reservation
• Banking Applications
• Commercial applications of large industries/companies.

Examples of Mainframes are : IBM 3090, IBM 4381, IBM 4300 and IBM ES-
9000
Super Computer
• It is the biggest and fastest computer, which is mainly designed for
complex scientific applications.
• It has many CPUs which operates in parallel to make it as a fastest
computer.
Application Area of Super Computer
• Weather Information
• Petroleum Exploration and Production
• Energy Management
• Defense
• Nuclear Energy Research
• Structural Analysis
• Electronic Design
• Real-Time animation
• Medicine
Examples of Super Computer
• CRAY 3,
• CRAY-XMP-14,
• NEC-500,
• IBM-3090,
• PARAM 9000 and
• PARAM 10000
Super computer
Classification of Digital computer
• Desktop
• Workstation
• Notebook
• Tablet PC
• Handheld computer
• Smart Phone
workstation
Tablet PC
Handheld PC(PDA)
Smart phone
Summary
MEMORY SIZE WORD SIZE SPEED IN MIPS PERIPHERALS

MICRO 256 KB-8 8 OR 16 UP TO 1 2-3 TERMINALS, 1


PRINTER, 1-2
COMPUTER
MB FLOPPY DRIVE, 1-
2 DRIVES, 1 TAPE
DRIVE

MINI 1 MB-20 10 OR 32 UPTO 4 3-16 TERMINALS,


4-8 DISK DRIVES,
COMPUTER
MB 1-4 TAPE DRIVES,
1-2 PRINTERS

MAIN FRAME 8 MB OR 32 OR 64 4 TO 50 16-256


TERMINALS, 4-64
COMPUTER
64 MB DISK DRIVES, 2-8
PRINTERS, 4-16
TAPE DRIVES

SUPER 32 MB-256 64 50 TO SAME AS


MAINFRAME WITH
COMPUTER
MB 30,000 MORE OF
DEDICATED
SOFTWARE
PROGRAMMING LANGUGAES

It is a tool with the help of which we


can design the problem’s solution on
the computer
The Evolution of Programming Languages
To build programs, people use languages that are similar
to human language. The results are translated into
machine code, which computers understand.

Programming languages fall into three broad categories:

• Machine languages

• Assembly languages

• Higher-level languages
MACHINE LANGUAGE (M.L.)
•This is the language understood by a computer i.e. It is the binary
language.
•The writing of programs is machine language is very difficult &
complicated task which can be accomplished by only the experts.
• It consists of two parts namely : Operation Code, Abbreviated to
OP
•Here the operation code decides the operation which is to be
performed e.g. Addition, Subtraction etc.
•The Operand of the instruction code gives the specific location
address of the data to which the operation is to be applied.
Advantages Of Machine Language

• Programming in Machine Language is quite efficient as a


program in M.L. takes shorter time for execution than a
program written in other language.
• All facilities provided by a computer can be accessible so M.L.
is highly suited for small computers having limited memory.
Disadvantages Of Machine Language

• This is Machine Dependent i.e. different computer have different machine


languages.
• All instructions are to be written in Numerical form i.e. Binary Language
which is very difficult to remember and leads to many errors.
• Memory Address of every operand is to be given in binary form so, too
detailed knowledge of machine required.
• The program in M.L. are very difficult to read, understand and modify.
• The part of previously written programs in M.L. can not be used in new
programmes without changing the address of the instructions
ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE (A.L.)

• In this language, symbolic names are used instead of binary numbers.


• This helps to reduce coding time .
• This language is also known as symbolic language.
• Instead of using machine code operation numbers, there are some
mnemonics like as ADD, SUB, MULT and DIV etc.
• An instruction in Assembly Language consists of three parts.
• (1) LABEL -- It represents the symbolic address of an instruction.
A label will consist of 1-6 alphanumeric characters
i.e. A-Z and 0-9 with no space in between the
characters .
• 2) Operation Code : The operation code is an instruction mnemonic. It is
an abbreviated word such as ADD etc.
• 3) Operand : The operand consist of symbolic address of a memory
location.
• Working of Assembly Language : As we know that computer understand
only machine language. So, if we have written a program in Assembly
Language then it will have to convert in Machine language before
execution. So, a translation process will run that is known as Assembler.
The program written in Assembly language is known as Source Program
while the translated program (in machine language) is known as Object
Program.
Advantages
• Operation code has been replaced by mnemonics which are
easier to understand.
• Not required to keep the track of memory locations. The
memory locations are replaced by the variable names.
• The insertions and deletions are quite easy in this language.
• Revision of complete program is very easy
• The human effort is less as compared to that in Machine Level
Language.

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