CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS ACCORDING TO SIZE, TECHNOLOGY AND PURPOSE

According to size
• Supercomputers
• Mainframe Computers
• Minicomputers
• Workstations
• Microcomputers or Personal Computers

Supercomputers:
 Supercomputer is the most powerful and fastest, and also very expensive.
 It was developed in 1980s. It is used to process large amount of data and to solve the complicated
scientific problems.
 It can perform more than one trillions calculations per second. It has large number of processors
connected parallel.
 In a single supercomputer thousands of users can be connected at the same time and the
supercomputer handles the work of each user separately.

o Weather forecasting.
o Nuclear energy research.
o Aircraft design.
o Automotive design.
o Online banking.
o To control industrial units.

C-DAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computer) of India has developed PARAM series of Super
Computer. ANURAG is also Indian Super Computer. Other Super Computers are CRAY XMP/14, CDC-205 etc.
Mr. Seymour Cray was a pioneer person in the field of supercomputer production. He had developed the
first super computer Cray-1 in 1976.

Top 5 supercomputers in India

Pratyush (Cray XC40)
Pratyush supercomputer is located at Supercomputer Education and Research Centre (SERC) facility at
Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
Pratyush T (CRAY XC40) is the product of Cray Inc. an American supercomputer manufacturer.
 This Supercomputer consist of Intel Haswell Xeon E5-2680v3 processors
 NVIDIA K40 GPU accelerators and Intel Xeon Phi 5120D coprocessors
 storage of 2.1 PB (1015 bytes)
 There are around 1500 processors and coprocessors and 44 GPUs to handle complex tasks in the
system
 The System implements Cray Aries interconnect routing using DragonFly topology.
 Cray’s Linux environment is used as the OS for the system.
 Pratyush has been rated to 901.54 TFLOPS, which the highest rating amongst all supercomputers in
India.
Pratyush provides service to our nation in the fields of aerospace engineering, meteorology predictions and
astrological simulations. Also Pratyush is used for molecular and material research and mapping entire
climate condition of the particular region via simulation.

Aaditya (IBM/Lenovo System)

Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune, is the India’s finest meteorological department which uses
IBM X system supercomputer for research and development. System is called as Aaditya which is
manufactured by IBM.
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric
physics, with a major focus on weather forecasting.

The Aaditya supercomputer in Pune

 This system has Intel Xeon Haswell E5-2670 2.6 GHZ processors and total RAM storage of 15TB.
 There are 2384 compute nodes in the system.
 The System is rated with a speed of 719.2 TFLOPS.
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux is used as the operating system environment.
 Nodes are connected through infiniband interconnect technology.
This supercomputer helps the institute to operate and provide accurate data regarding the Nation’s
weather conditions, simulating weather models of the country, predicting rainfall cycles for the monsoon,
and air quality forecasting. Most of our country’s weather forecasting is done by this system. Farmers rely
on the information provided by this system on rainfall predictions and climate changes.

TIFR Colour Boson

This supercomputer is located at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research facility. This machine is also a Cray
product, model name is Cray XC-30. This supercomputer is deployed at Hyderabad .

The TIFR ColourBoson

ColourBoson consists of 4760 nodes of Intel Xeon E5-2680 processors and NVIDIA Tesla K20x GPU.
Total storage of the system is 1.1 PB.
Nodes are interconnected by Cray’s Aries interconnect routing technology with DragonFly topology.
Linux environment is used as the OS for the system.
The System can achieve a speed of 558.7 TFLOPS.
This system is used under Indian Lattice Gauge Theory Initiative program by the scientists of Tata Institute
of Fundamental Research.
Research and development on theoretical physics and quantum chromo dynamics is carried on by the
system.
The theory of study of elementary particles such as quarks and gluons is called as Quantum Chromo-
Dynamics (QCD).
The System is used for research of quark-boson a phase of matter that holds the mystery of the creation of
our universe.
IIT Delhi HPC
IIT Delhi has one of the fastest supercomputer in their campus.

IIT Delhi's supercomputer is the fourth fastest in India

 System specification ae HP ProLiant XL230a server & HP ProLiant XL250a Gen9 server with NVIDIA
K40M GPU cards
 Total storage of the system is 1.5 PB.
  For network connections Infiniband interconnect technology is used.
 There are in total 322 NVIDIA Tesla K40M GPU cards in the system.
 System performance is rated at 524.4 TFLOPS.
This supercomputer is under the use of researchers in fields of biology, nano systems, atmospheric science
and bioinformatics. System provides services across the IIT campus for study and research in the field of
Data Analytics , Deep Learning, Computational Physics, Chemistry, Computational Fluid Dynamics and
Material Science.
Param Yuva 2
Param Yuva 2 is the supercomputer located at Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in
Pune. The System is developed by Intel as OEM and system integrator is NetWeb technologies.

CDACs Param Yuva-2

Param Yuva 2 has 221 Intel Xeon E5-2670 nodes that also consist of Intel Xeon Phi 5110P, with Linux 64-bit
(CentOS 6.2)
total storage of 200TB.
The System is rated at 388.44 TFLOPS.
There are in all 3536 CPU cores and 26520 coprocessor cores.
The system is interconnected with Mellanox FDR Infiniband primary interconnect for interconnection of
nodes.
Param Yuva 2 provides service in fields of bioinformatics, space, weather forecasting, seismic data analysis,
aerospace engineering, scientific research and pharmaceutical development. The system can also be
interconnected with Indian Institute of Technology and National Institute of Technology via National
Knowledge Network, which is a multi-gigabit backbone network for high speed data transfer between some
educational institutions in India.

Mainframe Computers:
 These are usually slower, less powerful and less expensive than supercomputers.
 A technique that allows many people at terminals, to access the same computer at one time is
called time sharing. Mainframes are used by banks and many businesses to update inventory etc.
 Mainframe computers can support hundreds or thousands of users, handling massive amounts of
input, output, and storage.
 Mainframe computers are used in large organizations where many users need access to shared data
and programs.
 Mainframes are also used as e-commerce servers, handling transactions over the Internet, servers
on the World Wide Web, Banks, Airlines and Universities.
Only company still making a computer they call a mainframe is IBM.
IBMs current mainframe line is the Z series -

Example
IBM S/390, IBM S/709, ICL 39, CDC 6600 ,IBM zSeries , System z9, System z10 servers

Minicomputers:
These are smaller than mainframe, general purpose computers, and give computing power without adding
the prohibitive expenses associated with larger systems.
It is generally easier to use.
Minicomputers usually have multiple terminals.
Minicomputers may be used as network servers and Internet servers.

These are smaller in size, have lower processing speed and also have lower cost than mainframe.
The capabilities of a minicomputer are between mainframe and personal computer. These computers are
also known as midrange computers.
The minicomputers are used in business, education and many other government departments. Although
some minicomputers are designed for a single user but most are designed to handle multiple terminals.
Minicomputers are commonly used as servers in network environment and hundreds of personal
computers can be connected to the network with a minicomputer acting as server like mainframes,
minicomputers are used as web servers. Single user minicomputers are used for sophisticated design tasks.
The first minicomputer was introduced in the mid-1960s by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). After this
IBM Corporation (AS/400 computers) Data General Corporation and Prime Computer also designed the
mini computers

Example
MAI Basic 4, Data generation NOVA, Microdata Corp/Micro 820, PDP-11, VAX etc.
Workstations
• Workstations are powerful single-user computers.
• Workstations are used for tasks that require a great deal of number-crunching power, such as product
design and computer animation.
• Workstations are often used as network and Internet servers.

Microcomputers, or Personal Computers : is the smallest, least expensive of all the computers. Micro
computers have smallest memory and less power, are physically smaller and permit fewer peripherals to be
attached.
• Microcomputers are more commonly known as personal computers. The term “PC” is applied to IBM-PCs
or compatible computers.
• Desktop computers are the most common type of PC.
• Notebook (laptop) computers are used by people who need the power of a desktop system, but also
portability.
• Handheld PCs (such as PDAs) lack the power of a desktop or notebook PC, but offer features for users
who need limited functions and small size.
Personal Computers(PC),Desk Top, Lap Top, Palm Top,PDA
IBM PCs, Apple Mac, IBM PS/2, All computer available with Pentium Models etc.
According to Technology
• Analog Computers
• Digital Computers
• Hydride Computers

Analog Computers:
These computers recognize data as a continuous measurement of a physical property ( voltage, pressure,
speed and temperature).
The core mathematical operations used in an electric analog computer are:
 addition
 integration with respect to time
 inversion
 multiplication
 exponentiation
 logarithm
 division

Example: Automobile speedometer

Slide Rules
One of the simplest and most recognizable mechanical analog computers is the slide rule, a device for
approximating basic mathematical calculations. Users slide a hashed rod to line up with various markings on
another rod, and read the device based on the lineup of various hash marks.

Differential Analyzers
Another famous mechanical analog computer, the differential analyzer, was able to solve differential
equations. With designs as old as the early 1800s, the differential analyzer was refined in the 1930s, and
saw use through the mid twentieth century. The machines were large in comparison to modern computers,
filling a desk sized space.
The Castle Clock
The Castle clock is a good representation of the
various uses for mechanical analog computers. Al-
Jarazi invented this famous computer, which was
capable of saving programming instructions. The
eleven foot high device displayed the time, the
zodiac, and the orbits of the sun and moon. The
computational portion of the device allowed users to
set the variable length of the day based on the
current season. Described in 1206, the computer was
very complex for its period.

Electronic Analog Computers

Modern analog computers use electrical signals flowing
through various resistors and capacitors to simulate
physical phenomena, rather than the mechanical
interaction of components. The voltage of the signal
provides the pertinent readouts or displays. Electronic
analog computers saw wide use in computing and
military technology throughout the middle portion of
the twentieth century, in such capacities as missile and
aircraft testing.

Digital Computers:
These are high speed programmable electronic devices that perform mathematical calculations, compare
values and store results. They recognize data by counting discrete signal representing either a high or low
voltage state of electricity.

Hybrid Computers:
A computer that processes both analog and digital data.
According to Purpose

1. General purpose Computers

2. Special Computers

General purpose Computers

General-purpose computer is the one that can work on different types of programs input to it and thus be
used in countless applications. The programs are not permanently stored but are input at the time of
execution. These computers are very versatile.

Special purpose Computers

Special-purpose computer is the one that is designed to perform a specific task. The instructions (programs)
to carry out the task are permanently stored in the machine. For the specific tasks, this type of computer
works efficiently but such computers are not versatile.
A computer that is designed to operate on a restricted class of problems.
Use special purpose computer equipment to obtain patient diagnostic information.