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computer A term originally referring to the cabinet
containing the central processor unit or "main frame" of a
room-filling
Stone Age batch machine. After the emergence
traditional
big iron machines were described as "mainframe
computers" and eventually just as mainframes. The term
carries the connotation of a machine designed for batch rather
than interactive use, though possibly with an interactive
especially used of machines built by
IBM,
Unisys and the
It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s
that the mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead
low-cost personal computing. As of 1993, corporate America is
just beginning to figure this out - the wave of failures,
takeovers, and mergers among traditional mainframe makers have
Supporters claim that mainframes still house 90% of the data
major businesses rely on for mission-critical applications,
attributing this to their superior performance, reliability,
scalability, and security compared to microprocessors.
(1996-07-22)