Компьютерная техника. Еремина Н.В. - 18 стр.

than large mainframes, it goes without saying that the software and peripheral
requirements differ greatly from those of a computer which runs several hundred
ever-changing jobs a day. The operating systems of minis alsousually provide system
access to either a single user or to a limited number of users at a time.
     Since many minis are employed in real-time processing, they are usually
provided with operating systems that are specialized for this purpose. Because
minicomputer systems have been used so often in real-time applications, other aspects
of their design have changed; that is, they usually possess the hardware capability to
be connected directly to a large variety of measurement instruments, to analog and
digital converters, to microprocessors, and to an even larger mainframe in order to
analyze the collected data.

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Microcomputers

     The early 1970-s saw the birth of the microcomputer, or micro for short. The
central processor of the micro, called the microprocessor, is built as a single
semiconductor device; that is, the thousands of individual circuit elements necessary
to perform all the logical and arithmetic functions of a computer are manufactured as
a single chip. A complete microcomputer system is composed of a microprocessor, a
memory and peripheral equipment.
     The processor, memory and electronic controls for periphera1 equipment are
usually put together on a single or a few printed circuit boards. System using
microprocessors can be hooked up together to do the work that until recently only
minicomputers systems were capable of doing. Micros generally have samewhat
simpler and less flexible instruction sets than minis, and are typically much slower.
     Different micros are available with 4-, 8-, 16-bit word lengths. Similarly minis
can be equipped with much larger primary memory sizes, micros are becoming more
powerful and converging with minicomputer technology.
In addition to their extensive use in control systems of all types, they аre destined for
many new uses from more complex calculators to automobile engine operation and
medical diagnostics. They аre already used in automobile emission control systems