Compare and Contrast name POS 355 date instructor
Compare and Contrast
This paper will give a comparison and contrast between and mainframes and Personal Computers. Over the years personal computers and mainframes have made huge advances over the years. Personal computers are just what they are called personal computers while mainframes are used for large businesses and organizations for multiple users. Both have had enormous changes over the years, dumb terminals have evolved into what we now call personal computers. Mainframes started out as very large machines, they use to occupy anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 square feet sometimes more. They are now around the size of other types of commercial-use computers.
We have personal computers because of mainframes they are part main frame and part dumb terminal. This is why mainframes and personal computers have the similarities that they do. Both mainframes and personal computers have one or more central processor units, I/O systems, busses, and memory. They are both systems that are IBM-based and they are both built using similar hardware. The calculations and actions that they perform are the same. The physical design has stayed the same for many years now. They both have memory, a display, a processor, storage, and an operating system.
In the past mainframes could access more space than a personal computer making them a very important tool. Mainframes were able to retrieve many times more memory than the limits of DOS. One megabyte was the limit for DOS years ago. Large corporations needed batch processing and to use batch processing needed more memory. They did not care if they spent extra money as long as they were able to get the speed that was needed. Now mainframes are not the only way to go when it comes to megabytes of space. Personal computers can do the same thing now. Windows 95 changed that when it was released to the public. Someday mainframes and personal computers will be the same.
The personal computer and mainframe both have operating systems but they are very different. The operating system that is in the mainframe is much more complex than the one that is in the personal computer. The reason for this is because the mainframe is set up for multi-user. The need for extra stability and security is required. Personal computers require to be reset often but as for a