POS/355
September 10, 2012
PC vs Mainframe Paper
Today, fast pace society is depended on the computers, or computer devices. One cannot go through a day with out seeing someone on there smartphone, Laptop, or tablet. While PC is a common device that people know of today. However, one may not be able to say the same for Mainframes. Mainframes are high performance systems that are used for large amounts of data processing. PC stands for Personal Computer, and are designed for home, small office, or to process smaller amounts of data. There are some aspect to each devices.
Mainframes are classified as 1 to 16 CPU or more with newer models. The memory ranges from 128 mb to over 8 Gigabytes of ram.It processing power ranges from 80 to over 550 Mips. It often used different cabinets for storage, I/O, and Ram. ("Mainframe Concepts", 2011) Mainframes can be extremely costly running over 750,000 dollars, and are usually bulky systems. Mainframes also have more bus speed, more cache, and does not experience the same downtime that a PC does.
PC have only one CPU with usually a multicore processors. Typical maxing out around 16 Gb of RAM, and with processing range is base on the amount of RAM. Processing speed, and processing brand. PC usually store all components in one housing. PC tend to reduce in size over the years. That resulted in the evolution of tablets, and smart phones. The internals of a PC consist of a motherboard, inputs and outputs, CPU, RAM, Processors, Hard Drives, and Graphic cards. Pc are affordable for the average person not like the mainframes.
Times of Mainframes are not likely going to come to a end anytime soon. Companies are willing to spend the money to purchase Mainframes due to the fact that they need to process large amounts of data daily. While PC might evolve into tablets that are capable of processing the same amount of data as a PC. This could happen in the near future because of the high demand for
References: Mainframe concepts. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.thocp.net/hardware/mainframe.htm Questioning the Cost Performance of Mainframes . (2012). Retrieved from http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1120