Computer Classifications According to Size

• Super computers are the most powerful and expensive computers available today.
  
• It uses modern and sophisticated technologies.
  
• It has thousands of micro processors to provide very high processing speed.
  
• supercomputer generates large amounts of heat and must be cooled
  
• A supercomputer is a computer that leads the world in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation, at the time of its introduction
  
• Supercomputers consume and produce massive amounts of data in a very short period of time
  
• It is used by people who need extra computing power to process complex data such as weather forecasting, moving of galaxies, chemical processing

• Mainframe computers are large and powerful system that can handle thousands of users at a given time.
  
• It is mostly used to handle a single dedicated task such as flight reservation system in airline industry.
  
• Terminals are used to connect and access resources ((processor, memory, storage)) from a mainframe computer.
  
• A computer terminal is an electronic hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. Terminals are of two types.
  1- Dumb terminals do not do any processing.
  2- Intelligent terminal has some limited processing power, but it do not have the capability of storing data.
  
• Standard personal computer also used as  terminal to connect to the mainframe
  

Minicomputers

• Minicomputers are computer systems that are less powerful than mainframe computers but more powerful than personal computers.
  
• Minicomputers are much small in size compared to the other computers at that time.
  
• Able to handle hundreds of users at a given time.
  Connected either by using a terminal or a personal computer.
  

• Workstations are a personal computer that is powerful than desktop computers.      
  
• It is a specialized and powerful computer to perform complex tasks much faster.
  
•  A workstation is a high-end technical computing desktop microcomputer designed primarily to be used by one person at a time, but can also be accessed remotely by other users when necessary.
  
• Workstations usually offer higher performance than normally found in a personal computer, especially with respect to graphics, processing power and multitasking ability
  
• Because of its extra processing ability,It is mostly used by a single user such as
  Scientists
  Video producers
  Animators
  Engineering designers etc

Personal Computers (PC) are computers which are used by a single person. Important characteristic of a PC is that a single person can only use it at a time