Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwvax!tank!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What is a Mainframe?
Message-ID: <46500070@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 13 Jun 89 17:55:00 GMT
References: <4420012@hpihoah.HP.COM>
Lines: 17
Nf-ID: #R:hpihoah.HP.COM:4420012:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:46500070:000:819
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Jun 13 12:55:00 1989


>I think that a good way to classify computers nowadays is not by the
>horsepower of the CPU but rather by the number of interactive users
>which it is designed to comfortably support. Microcomputers can support
>a few users (typically one).  Minicomputers can support a few dozen
>users.  Mainframes can support a few hundred users.  The small mainframe
>which I am using now, currently has 102 users logged on.
>The big corporate system, has a login limit of 525 users.  To support
>this type of load, mainframes need what minis and micros don't -- a very
>powerful I/O system.  It takes more than a fast CPU to call yourself a
>mainframe.

But what can those 525 users do at once?   How many people can
use Emacs at one time and be UNABLE to tell they weren't running on
a $6000 PC, by themselves.

Doug McDonald