Well, if you are going to be serious about it, mainframes also had in my
day intelligent DASD I/O with multi-channel controllers  so that I/O load
can be balanced.

Wendell



On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Ron Burnett wrote:

> Gary Sielaff wrote:
>
> > What determines the difference between a mini and a mainframe?
> > just curious in Moses Lake
>
> There doesn't seem to have been a serious attempt to answer this
> question yet, so I'll have a go (and probably reveal my generation):
>
> A 'mini' is a machine with only one processor, single-threaded
> time-sharing operating system.
>
> A 'mainframe' has multiple processors and an operating system
> that supports multiple concurrent processes.
>
> That's the way it used to be.  But the distinction is blurred these
> days.
>
> Ron Burnett
> [log in to unmask]
>

Wendell E. Gragg                 Socorro Independent School District
HP Library Systems Specialist    El Paso Tx
[log in to unmask]

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