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> But the PDP-10 and VAX 9000 were basically mainframes. Million dollars or more. Whole large room with three phase power. Standard building AC might suffice bu
by mmooss 2y ago
> But the PDP-10 and VAX 9000 were basically mainframes. Million dollars or more. Whole large room with three phase power. Standard building AC might suffice but that was pushing the margin. And the faster clocked VAX 9000 was water cooled! That's not a minicomputer.
Why is that not a minicomputer. From our perspective it's a massive installation; from the perspective of the time, it was not necessarily.
- varjag 2y agoMinicomputer at the time was considered a system that fits in a rack or three. Not something that requires a purpose built room with own mains, raised floor and AC.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- somat 2y agoI am not exactly sure what makes a modern mainframe(same architecture as a historical mainframe I guess) but for historical machines I consider the wide machines(like the 36-bit pdp-10) mainframes, where minicomputers were usually narrower. 16 or 18 bit machines. Really there is no good formal definition, dividing computers into three groups(mainframe, minicomputer, microcomputer) based on how much you payed for it, is as good a mechanism for figuring this out as any other.