Minicomputer

A minicomputer is a historical term for a computer built from the early 1960s into the 1980s, less powerful than a mainframe, but cheaper and smaller, often mounted in a single as tall as a wardrobe or less.

Description
Minicomputers were characterized by short word lengths of 8 to 32 bits, limited hardware and software facilities, and relatively small physical size for the time. Their lower cost made them suitable for a wide variety of applications, such as industrial control, where a smaller, dedicated computer needed to be permanently assigned to one application. Improvements in device technology resulted in minicomputers that were comparable in performance to large s and greatly exceeded the performance of vintage s.

The processor was typically built using low-integration logic integrated circuits — or sometimes, distinguishing it from a microcomputer which is built around a microprocessor - a processor on a single (or maybe a few) ICs.

History
The, released by (DEC) in 1959, is considered to be the first minicomputer. The was released in 1970 and became their most successful model, followed in 1977 by the, which DEC called a "super minicomputer". Another early minicomputer was the, designed at the in 1962 and built in the following year. Other minicomputer examples include the, the , and the.

In recent years, the role of minicomputers have been supplanted by midsize servers that have adopted microprocessor technology to accomplish similar roles in a smaller form factor.