what is a mainframe?

Answer 1

Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as Big Iron) are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, ERP, and financial transaction processing.

The term probably originated from the early mainframes, as they were housed in enormous, room-sized metal boxes or frames. [1] Later the term was used to distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful units which were often contained in smaller packages.

Today in practice, the term usually refers to computers compatible with the IBM System/360 line, first introduced in 1965. (IBM System z9 is IBM's latest incarnation.) Otherwise, systems with similar functionality but not based on the IBM System/360 are referred to as "servers." However, "server" and "mainframe" are not synonymous (see client-server).

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Answer 2

Mainframe computers are computers left over from the days before the desktop PC was invented. They are usually huge in size, filling an entire room, and are much more powerful then a desktop PC, able to process hundreds of users at a time.

Mainframe computers are usually only found in large corporations or universities. Even then, they are 20 or more years old and still in use only because the company does not want to spend the money to move a working mainframe program (and all its hundreds of gigs of data) to a modern server (which many not be powerful enought to handle it).

Mainframe compers run on their own operating sytem, and do not have or look like Windows. They are usually text only screens, with no mouse, cursor, icons, etc.

Mainframes are rapidly becoming a "thing of the past", replaced by modern servers and aplications such as SAP which allow you to do all of the old mainframe functions within a Windows environment.

Answer 3

Computers used to come in three sizes, micro-computers (what we all use now - PCs), mini-computers (things about the size of a gym locker), and mainframes (big ol' "serious" computers that did serious things. They could be the size of a normal kitchen or the size of a mobile home).

Now of course everything has gotten smaller, and the microcomputers of the present far outperform the mainframes of the past.

A few "Supercomputers" (mini-computer sized, usually) still exist for some heavy lifting operations, but even there microcomputers in series have proven more practical.

Answer 4

Those are the BIG computers used for the most part, by corporations and government. They can pretty much fill a large room, need constant a/c, etc.

Answer 5

a HUGE computer. there a 4 types of computers. the one we use at home is called micro computer. that's all i remember.