Content added Content deleted
imported>Finn mNo edit summary |
imported>mutante m (New page: <jargon />) |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
<jargon /> |
|||
Definition for: mainframe |
|||
A "mainframe" originally meant the cabinet containing the [[CPU|central processor unit]] of a very large [[computer]]. |
|||
After minicomputers became available, the word mainframe came to refer to the large computer itself. |
|||
The older computers used many large vacuum tubes and generated a lot of heat, thus requiring specially air-conditioned rooms. |
|||
A single [[computer]] might have hundreds of users at a time. |
|||
Today, because the large vacuum tubes have given way to transistors, a desktop personal computer can have as much poweras a mainframe computer that once filled a whole room. |
|||
Mainframes in use now often have smaller [[computer|computers]] as front end processors. |
|||
[[Category:Computer]] |
|||
[[Category:Definitions]] |
Latest revision as of 06:25, 12 November 2007
<jargon />