TYPES OF COMPUTER

INTRODUCTION
TO
COMPUTERS

 WHAT IS A COMPUTER?
The name “computer” is derived from the Latin word computare,
meaning “to compute” which means to calculate .So a computer is a machine which performs
different kinds of tasks, such as communication, processes the data, store information, data and
mathematical calculation on different media. OR
A computer is an electronic device, which is used to input, output, process, store and analyse
data to get specific result. OR
A computer is an electronic machine that can transmit, store and manipulate data or
information, which can be numeric or character type. OR
A computer is an electronic device or machine that stores, retrieves and process information.
A computer solves computing problems involving words or numbers or both. It helps us to solve
our wide and varied problems accurately and quickly. The problems may relate to fields such as
industry, commerce, medical, engineering and education. The computer can perform many
functions with great speed. It can perform the task in a few seconds that human being can do in
a year. The computer is also very accurate in calculations. In these days, computer is a very
important thing in daily life. But some fields are totally based on computer and without computer
they cannot do any thing such as:
 Business and Industry.
 Science and Technology.
 Schools and Universities.
 Traffic Control.
 Government.
 Defence.
 Libraries.
 Entertainment.
 Education.
The major characteristics of computers, which have made them so powerful and useful, are:
 Speed
 Accuracy
 Consistency
 Storage capacity
 Flexibility.
 Power of Remembering.
 No Feelings.

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER

Types of Computers
(According to their working)
There are three basic kinds of computer classified according to their working.
1. Analog computers.
2. Digital computers.
3. Hybrid computers.

1. ANALOG COMPUTERS:
This computer can accepts an analog input and provides an
analog output of information. In other words, it is a computer, which deals with variables that
are measured along a continuous scale and are recorded to some predetermined degree of
accuracy. Analog computers are used to measure continuous values. An example is thermometer
because it measures the length of a mercury column, which varies continuously. Another
example is analog clock which measures time by means of the distance traveled by hand of the
clock around the dial. Now a day, analog computers are mainly used for engineering and
scientific works. They are used in paper making and in chemical industry. Analog computers do
not require any storage capability because they measure and compare quantities in a single
operation. Output from an analog computer is generally in the form of reading on a series of dial
(speedometer of a car) or a graph on a strip chart. They are very fast in their processing but their
result is not very accurate. Analog computers are faster than digital computer. Analog computers
are also called special purpose computer because they are specially design to solve a specific
problem.
Examples: Distance, velocity, acceleration, temperature, pressure, voltage, current, a
thermometer and a speedometer.
2. DIGITAL COMPUTERS:
Digital means discrete. With signals, every thing is described in
two states whether ON or OFF. A digital computer is designed to process data in numerical form
.A digital computer is a computer, which measures in terms of digital quantities .A digital
computer is based on the rule of counting .It perform directly the mathematical operation of
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In fact, digital computer uses digital signals,
which can distinguish between just two values 0 and 1. Digital computers used in scientific and
business oriented jobs because digital computers are very useful in solving complicated
arithmetical expressions/equations. The result of digital computers is more accurate, precise and
repeatable than the result of analog ones. Analog computers lack memory whereas digital
computers store information. The most common examples of digital computers are calculators
and digital watches. Digital watches are good examples of digital computer, because the time,
which is displayed, does not vary continuously but change from one discrete value to another.

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER
Types of Digital computer are Mainframe, Mini, Micro, General purpose and Special purpose
Computers.

3. HYDRID COMPUTERS:
Besides Digital and Analog computers, there is another kind of the computer, called the Hybrid
computer. Hybrid means that a thing which is made by two different things. So a Hybrid
computer contains both digital and analog features. The Hybrid computer is the combination of
the Digital and Analog computer, or in other words, a Hybrid computer has the characteristics of
both Analog and Digital computers, which means that it is a computer which can measure both
in terms of physical as well as digital quantities. They have the speed of Analog and accuracy of
Digital computers. These computers are used in working out special types of problems in science
and various areas of engineering such as space, vehicle simulations and training of astronauts.
They are used mainly in specialized applications where both kinds of information need to be
processed. These computers are designed to perform special task in which different
measurements are converted into digits and are processed by the computer. Hybrid computers
combine the high speed of Analog machine with the storage and decision-making ability of
Digital computer. The flight simulator used by commercial airline for training pilots is an
example complicated Hybrid computers. Hybrid computers make use of both analog and digital
components and techniques and are mostly used for automatic operations of complicated
physical processes and machines. But they are mostly hidden as in medical machine say
ultrasound or C.T scan. Hybrid computers are mostly used in Air Defence. There are no types of
Analog and Hybrid computers.
 CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS: (According to Capacity).
Digital computers are further divided into different categories according to their physical size,
cost, speed, size of main memory, processing power, word size and other capabilities possessed by
a computer. We can generally classify them into four categories:
1. SUPER COMPUTERS.
2. MAIN FRAME COMPUTERS.
3. MINI COMPUTERS.
4. MICRO COMPUTERS.
 SUPER COMPUTERS:
Super computer were developed in 1980. Super computers, just like any other typical computer.
The only difference between an ordinary computer and super computer is that super computers
are largest, fastest and most expensive computers. They are used to handle complicated
problems. These have extraordinary amounts of computing power required by large
organization, scientific laboratories, aerospace centers, large industrial units research
laboratories, etc. These computers are used in weather forecasting, aircraft design and nuclear
researches. They are also used in a time-sharing mode in which thousands of users can be
attached to the computer system at the same time. These machines are very difficult to design,
require a lot of research and development and are very expensive to manufacture.
Examples are CRAY-1 and CRAY-2 computers and Control Data Cyber 205 Super computers.
 Following are the characteristics, which make this machine a “SUPER COMPUTER”:
 They are best in solving scientific problems and calculating numbers.
 These machines are design mostly for scientists and engineers for problems solving and it referred
to as “Fortran Engines” because the scientists and engineers commonly use Fortran language.

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER
 These are considered to be the main tool for the simulation of nuclear weapons and delivery
system.
 Super computers can calculate at a rate of 400 million numbers every second and are accurate up
to 14 decimal places. (Other machines calculate at 10 million numbers and are accurate up to 6
decimal places).
 They are used in industrial research as they feasibly perform complex and crucial tasks in product
design.
 MAINFRAME COMPUTERS:
Mainframe computers are large-scale computers, very expensive machines and very powerful.
Computer systems of this size require very large rooms and a special physical environment (for
example Air Conditioning). Large systems can accommodate a large number and variety of
supporting equipment. Mainframe computers are fast and sophisticated with very large memory.
These are used in large organizations such as banks, government, universities and large
corporations where, these support multiple users.
EXAMPLES: IBM 4341, IBM 4381, ICL 2900, and Control Data Cyber 176 etc.
Mainframe computers have the following characteristics:
 Large in size
 Large in memory
 Powerful
 Expensive
 Designed for the computerization of the data of huge businesses, universities, banks, and
scientific laboratories, national and international markets.
 Mainframe usually fills a large room because it includes many types of peripheral equipment
memory.
 Mainframe operating systems supporting multiprogramming, time-sharing and virtual
memory.
 Multi I/O devices are used. Secondary storage devices (mass storage) used in the system were
tapes and disks.
 Million of bytes of information stored in large mainframe are processed at the speed of over
100 million arithmetical operations per second.
 MINI COMPUTERS:
Digital Equipment Corporation introduced Mini computers in the mid-1960s. Mini computers
are increasingly powerful and do almost anything that large computers do, but more slowly and at
much lower cost. This makes it ideal for small companies where capacity and speed of operations
is not highly critical. These low cost computers use integrated circuits. Mini computers can also
store relatively large amount of data. It can perform different tasks and support several users at a
time but the power of processing is not as great of the mainframe computers. These computers are
also used for networking. The numbers of users of each mini computer depends on the amount of
memory in computer. More memory means that more users can access the system at one time.
Examples: prime 9755, IBM system 36 etc.
 Characteristics of Mini computers:
 Small in size and more compact.
 Small in memory.
 Less expensive.
 Accesses time as fast as 75 nanoseconds.

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER
 Mini computer usually fills a small room because it also includes many types of peripherals
equipment attached to it.
 Disks are used for secondary storage and tape cartridges are used for data backup.
 Time-sharing, and batch processing are available on mini computers.
 Mini computers systems typically interactive systems and are used to enter data directly into the
computer via keyboard.

 MICRO COMPUTERS:
Microcomputer is sometimes called a single-chip processor. It is also called personal computer
(PC). Microcomputer is a digital computer system that uses a microprocessor (the CPU on a chip),
a programmable ROM and a RAM. These are very fast and low cost. It is ideal for small
businesses, engineering designs and for home use. These computers are used now a days
commonly and these computers revolutionized the computers industry because of their size and
low cost. They are also used by millions of person all over the world for entertainment and
personal application. Most microcomputers use integrated circuits (ICs). It is very fast in human
terms, it is much slower than the other two kinds.
Microcomputers can be of the following types:
 Desktop personal computer.
 Laptop personal computer also knows as electronic diary or notebook.
Examples: IBM, apple and IBM: 286, 386, 486, 586, Pentium II, and now Pentium IV as the
latest.
 Characteristics of Microcomputers:
 Smallest in size.
 Very small in memory.
 Least expensive.
 They are much more cost effective than mini computers.
 Access time is 100 nanoseconds.
 Design for personal use, therefore, these are also termed as personal computers (PCs).
 Microcomputer is easily accommodatable on a table and thus has the name desktop.
 There is another kind of microcomputer that can easily be placed on the lap and hence
called laptop and it easy to carry like a brief case.
 These are highly flexible.
 They are cheap and easy to use.
 They have limited input and output capacity.
 They are designed to be used by one person at a time.
 Hard disk, CD and floppy disk drives are used to enter and store data and programs.
 A visual display screen and a printer are used to get the output.
 Classification of computers: (According to Purpose).
1. General Purpose Computers.
2. Special Purpose Computers.
 General Purpose Computers:
These computers are designed to handle a variety of different jobs or problems and to meet
different needs e.g. with a personal computer, a user can perform typing, can play games, can
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 TYPES OF COMPUTER
make graphs or can do arithmetic. General-purpose machines are strong in versatility but are
normally weak in speed and efficiency as compared to dedicated computers.
 Special Purpose Computers:
It supports highly specialized data processing activity. Special purpose computers are also
known as Dedicated Computers, because these are designed to perform a particular job. In other
words, we can say that they are designed to handle specific problems e.g. they are used in computer
games, control of traffic lights, navigational system of an atomic submarine, collecting highway
tolls, airline reservations, satellite tracking, air traffic control and industrial process control. Many
such systems have a set of instructions permanently programmed into them that are designed to
perform only one major function. As these computers have to perform only one task, therefore,
they are fast in processing.

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