Computers can be classified on their size, processing speed and cost. The various types of computers are:
- Personal Computers
- Workstations
- Notebook/ Laptop Computers
- Tablet PC
- PDA
- Mainframe Computer
- Super Computers
Personal Computers
A PC is a small single user, microprocessor-based computer that sits on your desktops and is generally used at homes, offices, schools, etc. As the name implies, PCs were mainly designed to meet the personal computing needs of individuals. Personal computers are used for preparing normal text documents, spreadsheets with predefined calculations and business analysis charts, database management systems, accounting systems and creating many other documents, such as designing office stationary, banners, bills handouts, etc, PCs are available in two models-desktop and tower.
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Workstations
Workstations are high-end, general-purpose computers that are designed to meet the computing needs of engineers, architects and other professionals who need computers with greater processing power, larger storage and better graphic display facilities. These are commonly used for Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and for multimedia applications, such as creating special audio-visual effects for television programmes and movies. A workstation looks like a PC and can be used by only one person at a time.
Notebook/Laptop Computers
Notebook computers are battery-operated personal computers. Smaller than the size of a briefcase, these are portable computers and can be used in places, such as libraries, in meetings or even while travelling. Popularly known as laptop computers, or simply laptops, they weigh less than 2.5 kg and are only 3 inches thick. Notebook computers are usually more expensive as compared to desktop computers though they have almost the same functions, but since they are sleeker and portable they have a complex design and are more difficult to manufacture. These computers have large storage space and other peripherals, such as serial port, PC card, modem or network interface card, CD-ROM drive and printer.
Tablet PC
Tablet PC is a mobile computer that looks like a notebook or a small writing slate but uses a stylus pen or your finger tip to write on the touch screen. It saves whatever you scribble on the screen with the pen, as shown in picture in the same way as you have written it. The same picture can than be converted to text with the help of a hand recognition (HR) software.
PDA
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a small palm sized hand-held computer which has a small colour touch screen with audio and video features. Nowadays used as smart phones, web-enabled palmtop computers, portable media players, gaming devices, etc. Most PDAs today typically have a touch screen for data entry, a data storage/memory card, blue tooth, Wi-Fi or an infra red connectivity and can be used to access Internet and other networks.
Mainframe Computers
Mainframe computers are generally used for handling the needs of information processing of organizations, such as banks, insurance companies, hospitals and railways. This type of system is placed in a central location with several user terminals connected to it. The user terminals act as access stations and may be located in the same building. Mainframe computers look like a row of large file cabinets and need a large room with closely monitored humidity and temperature levels. A mainframe system of lower configuration is often referred to as a minicomputer system.
Supercomputers
Supercomputers are the most powerful and expensive computers available today. They are primarily used for processing complex scientific applications that involve tasks with highly complex calculations and solving problems with mechanical physics, such as weather forecasting and climate research systems, nuclear weapon simulation and simulation of automated aircrafts. Military organizations, major research and development centres, universities and chemical laboratories are major users of supercomputers. Supercomputers use multiprocessing and parallel processing technologies to solve complex problems promptly.
Computers of Computers
Computers of computers' perform scientific, engineering and network applications handling a very large database and a huge amount of computations because they themselves are arranged in a set of computers. They are basically approached in two ways known as symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and massively parallel processing (MPP). They also work in a group in cluster computing. These computers of computers handle not only information queries, storage management but also authentication and data encryption to ensure the information security over large database. They basically compute as parallel computation. They collectively present the design of the largest global virtual environment trying to employ all possible computer resources to get quick solution of the complex problems. They generally follow the three-tier approaches as access, management and computing phase.