Contents
• Classification of Computers
• On the basis of Purpose
• On the basis of Size
• On the basis of Working Mechanism
• Classification of Computers (Purpose)
• General Purpose
• Special Purpose
• Classification of Computers (Size)
• Super Computers
• Mainframe Computers
• Mini Computers
Contents
• Micro Computers
• Desktop Computers
• Workstations
• Notebook Computers
• Tablet PCs
• Handheld Computers
• Smartphones
• Classification of Computers (Working Mechanism)
• Analog Computers
• Digital Computers
• Hybrid Computers
Classification of Computers
• Computers are classified on the basis of:
1. Purpose
2. Size
3. Type of Data / Working Mechanism
Classification of Computers
General Purpose
Purpose
Special Purpose
Super
Desktop
Classification of Mainframe
Computers Size Workstation
Mini
Notebook
Micro
Tablet
Analog
Type of Handheld
Data/Working Digital
Mechanism Smart Phone
Hybrid
Classification of Computers (Purpose)
• On the basis of purpose, computers are classified as:
1. General Purpose Computers
2. Special Purpose Computers
General Purpose Computers
Can browse Can send
Internet? emails?
Can edit images,
Can create
sound and
documents?
videos?
Can play music,
Can print
videos and
documents?
games?
General Purpose Computers
• They are designed to perform a wide variety of the tasks (They are not
limited).
• They are more flexible than special purpose computers.
• The computers that you see at your home are general purpose computers.
General Purpose Computers
• They are designed to do the following tasks:
• Create documents
• Print documents
• Play music, videos and games
• Send emails
• Browse internet
• Create models of building, vehicles or any other system
• Edit images, sound and videos
• And many more . . .
• Means they can do many different tasks.
Special Purpose Computers – Gaming Console
Can play Can send
games? emails?
Can edit images,
Can create
sound and
documents?
videos?
Can play music Can print
and videos? documents?
Special Purpose Computers – Digital Watch
Can display
Can send
and change
emails?
time?
Can edit images,
Can create
sound and
documents?
videos?
Can play music Can print
and videos? documents?
Special Purpose Computers – CT Scan Machine
Can take images
Can send
inside of human
emails?
body?
Can edit sound Can create
and videos? documents?
Can play music Can print
and videos? documents?
Special Purpose Computers – Robot
Can send
Can lift objects?
emails?
Can create
Can walk?
documents?
Can play music Can print
and videos? documents?
Special Purpose Computers – GPS System
Can send
Can navigate?
emails?
Can edit sound Can create
and videos? documents?
Can play music Can print
and videos? documents?
Special Purpose Computers
• They are designed to perform specific task or a set of tasks (They are
limited).
• They are less flexible than general purpose computers.
• They are designed to be used for special set of tasks and can not be used for
general purposes.
Special Purpose Computers
• Some examples of special purpose computers are:
• Gaming Consoles as - Play Station or Xbox 360 : Can only be used to play games, not
designed to create and print the documents or to do any other task.
• Digital Watch: Can only be used to display time, not designed to send emails, edit
images or to do any other task.
• X-Ray and CT Scan Machine: Can only be used to get images of human body inside, not
designed to play music, videos or to do any other task.
• Robot: Can only be used to perform special task (e.g. Can lift the object from one point
to another), not designed to browse the internet, play video games or to do any other
task.
• GPS System: Can only be used to navigate, not designed to browse the internet, play
video games or to do any other task.
• Car Control System: Can only be used to auto change the gear, control the auto-lock or
apply emergency brakes in car, not designed to create and print the documents or to do
any other task.
Classification of Computers (Size)
• On the basis of size, computers are classified as:
1. Super Computers
2. Mainframe Computers
3. Mini Computers
4. Micro Computers
Super Computers
• Super computers are the most powerful computers built by people.
• These computers are the largest computers among the computers made
since very starting ages.
• These computerscan house thousands of processors and can handle the
needs of thousands of users at a time.
• These computers can process huge amount of data.
• These computersare ideal for solving very large and complex problems
which required extreme calculation power.
Super Computers
• Super computers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as:
• Problems involving quantum mechanical physics
• Weather forecasting
• Climate research (including research into global warming)
• Molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical
compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals)
• Physical simulations (such as simulation of airplanes in wind tunnels, simulation
of the detonation of nuclear weapons, and research into nuclear fusion)
• Cryptanalysis
• Major universities
• Military agencies
• Scientific research laboratories
Super Computers
• The speed of super computers is measured in FLOPS (FLoating
Point Operations Per Second) or TFLOPS (1012 FLOPS).
• Some of the powerful super computers made are:
• IBM Blue Gene/P
• IBM NORC
• UNIVAC LARC
• CDC 6600
• Burroughs ILLIAC IV
• Intel Paragon XP/S 140
• Hitachi SR2201/1024
• NEC Earth Simulator
Super Computers – IBM Blue Gene/P
Super Computers – IBM NORC
Super Computers – UNIVAC LARC
Super Computers – CDC 6600
Super Computers – Burroughs ILLIAC IV
Super Computers – Intel Paragon XP/S 140
Super Computers – Hitachi SR2201/1024
Super Computers – NEC Earth Simulator
Mainframe Computers
• Mainframes are referred as Macro computers or Big Iron.
• These computers are used mainly by large organizations for critical
applications, typically bulk data processing such as industry, consumer statistics
and financial transaction processing.
• These are large and power computers but have less power than super
computers.
• The early mainframes were so large that they were housed in enormous,
room-sized metal boxes or frames.
• But today’s mainframes are smaller than that of early mainframes.
Mainframe Computers
• Mainframe computers are very large and powerful computers and can
handle the processing needs of thousands of users at a time.
• But these systems lake in flexibility i.e. they are only used for specific tasks
like, the mainframe in a Air-lines can only store the information about the
schedules of flights, the data about the visas and passports of
passengers, the record of the passengers etc.
• Means mainframe computers are not so much flexible.
• The speed of the mainframe computers is measured in MIPS (Millions of
Instructions Per Second).
Mainframe Computers
• Some of the powerful mainframe computers are:
• IBM System z9
• Burroughs large systems
• UNIVAC
• Some of the companies that manufacture the mainframe systems are:
• IBM
• Hewlett-Packard
• Sperry
• Burroughs
• Fujitsu
• Hitachi
• Groupe Bull.
Mainframe Computers – IBM System Z9
Mainframe Computers – Burroughs Large
Systems UNISYS LIBRA CLEARPATH 750
Mainframe Computers – UNIVAC
Mini Computers
• Mini computers were evolved in 1960’s.
• These are smaller and less powerful than mainframe computers.
• But still they can offer huge processing capabilities.
• The capabilities of a mini computer are somewhere between those
of mainframes and micro computers.
• For this reason, mini computers are often called as midrange
computers.
• They usually took up one or a few cabinets the size of a large
refrigerator.
• Mini computers can handle huge processing than micro
computers.
Mini Computers
• The mini computers can handle the processing needs of hundreds
of users at a time.
• Like mainframes, mini computers can handle much more input and
output than micro computer can.
• Although some mini computers are designed to be used by single
user.
• The user can access the central mini computer through a terminal
or standard PC.
Mini Computers
• Some examples of minicomputers are:
• Control Data’s CDC 150A and CDC 1700, DEC, PDP and VAX series
• Data General Nova
• Hewlett-Packard’s HP3000 series
• Honeywell-Bull Level 6/DPS, 6/DPS 6000 series
• IBM midrange computers
• Norsk Data Nord-1, Nord-10, and Nord-100
• Prime Computer, Prime 50 series
• SDS, SDS-92
• Wang Laboratories 2200 and VS series .
Mini Computers – HP3000
Mini Computers – PDP 1
Mini Computers – PDP 7
Mini Computers – PDP 12
Mini Computers – IBM AS/400
Micro Computers
• Micro computers, astheir name implies, are the smallest
computers built for the users.
• These computers are so
small that they can sit under or inside a
desk or table some computer even can easily fit in to your hand
or pocket.
• Micro computers are
so called because they contain a
microprocessor (µP) as its CPU.
• Anothergeneral characteristic of these computers is that they
occupy physically small amounts of space.
• These arethe computers which we see all around us in offices,
homes, schools, colleges and universities.
Micro Computers
• These computers are designed to be used by a single person at a time
therefore these are also known as personal computers (PCs).
• There are six primary types of micro computers:
1. Desktop Computers
2. Workstations
3. Notebook computers
4. Tablet PCs
5. Handheld Computers
6. Smart Phones
Micro Computers – Desktop
Micro Computers – Workstations
Micro Computers – Notebook
Micro Computers – Tablet PC
Micro Computers – Handheld
Micro Computers – Smartphone
Classification of Computers (Working
Mechanism)
• On the basis of working mechanism, computers are classified as:
1. Analog Computers
2. Digital Computers
3. Hybrid Computers
Analog Computers
• Analogcomputers are the form of computers which use electrical,
mechanical or hydraulic phenomena to solve the problems.
• More generally an analog computer uses one kind of physical quantity to
represent the behavior of another physical system, or mathematical
function.
• Analog computers are the computers, designed to perform arithmetical
functions upon the numbers, where the numbers are responded by
some physical quantity like, temperature and voltage (which vary
continuously).
• Analog computers operate by only measuring rather than by counting.
• These computers are used for scientific and engineering problems.
Analog Computers
Timeline of analog computers
• The slide rule is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication
and division, invented around 1620–1630, shortly after the publication of
the concept of the logarithm.
• The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve
differential equations by integration, using wheel-and-disc mechanisms to
perform the integration. Invented in 1876, they were first built in the
1920s and 1930s.
• In World War II era gun directors and bomb sights used mechanical analog
computers.
• General Precision Systems electronic analog computer in 1950 was a very
adaptable machine that could be configured to solve a range of problems.
Analog Computers
• The MONIAC Computer was a hydraulic model of a national economy built in the
early 1950s.
• Heathkit EC-1 an educational analog computer made by the Heath Company, USA
in 1960.
• Some examples of analog computers constructed and practically used are:
• Antikythera mechanism
• Astrolabe
• Differential analyzer
• Kerrison Predictor
• Mechanical integrator
• MONIAC Computer (hydraulic model of UK economy)
• Nomogram
• Norden bombsight
Digital Computers
• The digital computer is capable of performing operations on data represented in
digital or number form i.e. data represented as a series of discrete elements
arranged in a coded form.
• Digital computers are more accurate than analog computers.
• Digital computers handle values that are in discrete (binary 0’s and 1’s).
• As the digital computers do not support mechanical based operations therefore
they are freed from huge and heavy mechanical components like motors and gears
so the size of these computers is smaller and are lighter than analog computers.
• The computers that we see all around us in offices, schools, homes and colleges are
the examples of digital computers.
Digital Computers
• Today’s digital computers contain special hardware as microprocessor, memory,
input/output (I/O) devices and storage devices; and special softwares like
Operating System (OS) and other utility softwares which make them more
powerful and flexible.
• These computers are quieter than the analog computers for this they are ideal
for office use.
• The old digital computers include Zuse Z3 (May, 1941), Atanasoff-Berry
Computer (1941), Colossus (1943), Harvard Mark I - IBM ASCC (1944) and ENIAC
(1944).
• Today’s most commonly used digital computers are Intel Core i5 and Intel Core i7.
Hybrid Computers
• The term hybrid computer is frequently used to refer any computer system
that comprises features of analog computers and digital computers.
• Hybridcomputer has the properties of both analog and digital
computers and can input and output analog and digital data.
• The digital unit controls the analog unit by the means of instructions stored
in the digital memory.
• A hybrid computer uses digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion.
• These computers are widely used in the fields of robotics.
Hybrid Computers
• These computers can process both discrete and continuous data.
• The examples of hybrid computer are HRS-100, a hybrid computer from
Mihajlo Pupin Institute and WAT 1001 (a polish hybrid computer).
