microcomputer

A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer with

a microprocessor as its central processing unit (CPU).[2] It
includes a microprocessor, memory, and minimal input/output
(I/O) circuitry mounted on a single printed circuit
board.[3] Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 1980s
with the advent of increasingly powerful microprocessors.
The predecessors to these
computers,mainframes and minicomputers, were comparatively
much larger and more expensive (though indeed present-day
mainframes such as theIBM System z machines use one or more
custom microprocessors as their CPUs). Many microcomputers
(when equipped with a keyboardand screen for input and output)
are also personal computers
The term microcomputer came into popular use after the
introduction of the minicomputer, although Isaac Asimov used the
term microcomputer in his short story "The Dying Night" as early
as 1956 (published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction in July that year).[6] Most notably, the microcomputer
replaced the many separate components that made up the
minicomputer's CPU with one integrated microprocessor chip.

Workstation
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical
or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one
person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area
network and run multi-user operating systems. The
term workstation has also been used loosely to refer to everything
from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to
a network, but the most common form refers to the group of
hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such
as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo
Computer, DEC, HP, NeXT and IBM which opened the door for
the 3D graphics animation revolution of the late 1990s.
Workstations offered higher performance than
mainstream personal computers, especially with respect
to CPU and graphics, memory capacity, and multitasking
capability. Workstations were optimized for the visualization and
manipulation of different types of complex data such as 3D
mechanical design, engineering simulation (e.g., computational
fluid dynamics), animation and rendering of images, and
mathematical plots. Typically, the form factor is that of a desktop
computer, consist of a high resolution display, a keyboard and
amouse at a minimum, but also offer multiple displays, graphics
tablets, 3D mice (devices for manipulating 3D objects and
navigating scenes), etc. Workstations were the first segment of
the computer market to present advanced accessories
and collaboration tools.

Minicomputer
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of
smaller computers that was developed in the mid-1960s[1][2] and
sold for much less thanmainframe[3] and mid-size computers
from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, the New
York Times suggested a consensus definition of a minicomputer
as a machine costing less than US$25,000, with an input-output
device such as a teleprinter and at least four thousand words of
memory, that is capable of running programs in a higher level
language, such as Fortran or BASIC.[4] The class formed a distinct
group with its own software architectures and operating systems.
Minis were designed for control, instrumentation, human
interaction, and communication switching as distinct from
calculation and record keeping. Many were sold indirectly
to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for final end use
application. During the two decade lifetime of the minicomputer
class (1965–1985), almost 100 companies formed and only a half
dozen remained.[5]
When single-chip CPU microprocessors appeared, beginning with
the Intel 4004 in 1971, the term "minicomputer" came to mean a
machine that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum,
in between the smallest mainframe computers and
the microcomputers.

Mainframe
Mainframe computers (colloquially referred to as "big iron"[1])
are computers used primarily by large organizations for critical
applications, bulk data processing, such as census, industry and
consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and transaction
processing.
The term originally referred to the large cabinets called "main
frames" that housed the central processing unit and
main memory of early computers.[2][3] Later, the term was used to
distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful
units.[4] Most large-scale computer system architectures were
established in the 1960s, but continue to evolve.
Modern mainframe design is generally less defined by single-task
computational speed (typically defined as MIPS rate or FLOPS in
the case of floating point calculations), and more by:

 Redundant internal engineering resulting in high reliability and

security
 Extensive input-output facilities with the ability to offload to
separate engines
 Strict backward compatibility with older software
 High hardware and computational utilization rates through
virtualization to support massive throughput.
Their high stability and reliability enable these machines to run
uninterrupted for decades.

Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of computing
performance compared to a general-purpose computer.
Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-
point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million
instructions per second (MIPS). As of 2017, there are
supercomputers which can perform up to nearly a
hundred quadrillions of FLOPS[3], measured in
P(eta)FLOPS.[4] The majority of supercomputers today run Linux-
based operating systems.
Supercomputers play an important role in the field
of computational science, and are used for a wide range of
computationally intensive tasks in various fields,
including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate
research, oil and gas exploration,molecular modeling (computing
the structures and properties of chemical compounds,
biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), and physical
simulations (such as simulations of the early moments of the
universe, airplane and spacecraft aerodynamics, the detonation
of nuclear weapons, and nuclear fusion). Throughout their history,
they have been essential in the field of cryptanalysis.[5]