Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!apple!amdahl!sbf10
From: sbf10@uts.amdahl.com (Samuel Fuller)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What is a Mainframe?
Keywords: high-performance
Message-ID: <78yG02e7346S01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 12 Jun 89 20:46:34 GMT
Reply-To: sbf10@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Samuel Fuller)
Distribution: comp.arch
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 14

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.



Sam Fuller / Amdahl System Performance Architecture