Types Of Digital Computers
Digital computers are the programmable machines that actually work on the maxim of binary mathematics in which all the calculations are symbolized with the usage of 0 and 1. There are two main types of digital computers named as general purpose and special purpose. The general purpose digital computers are the one that consists of mainframe, micro, mini, and super computers. On the other hand, the special purpose is the type of digital computer that are built and patterned for specific purposes. Nearly every computer system from desktop to smart phones operate under the binary form, so these all can be considered to be digital computers.
The mainframe is the types of digital computer that consist of certain system which work on a large amount of data. Normally, these computers are stored at any fixed site and are utilized by various companies such as banking, railways and airlines that want to process as well as store vast amount of data on an on-going base. In addition, the mainframe digital computers are very helpful in the processing data at very high speed, normally in millions of instructions in one second. The super computers are the types of digital computers that have the ability of processing billions of instructions per second. Usually, the super computers are used for such applications that demand a broad numerical computation. Commonly, these digital computers are utilized in stock analysis, weather forecasting, and fluid dynamic calculations, electronic designing, animated graphics, and nuclear energy research etc.
Mini computers are the type of digital computers that are considered to be comparatively less speedy and the capacity of storage is also low. All the characteristics present in the mainframe digital computers are not available in the mini computers and hence, the overall performance is also less. However, in comparison to the mainframe computers, the mini computers are quite inexpensive. The digital computer of micro systems is considered to be the most dominant of all types of digital computers. All types of personal computers both in desktop as well as laptops are included in this category. PDA or personal digital assistants and handheld computers are also included in micro computers. These computers are versatile and can treat a large variation of productivity as well as different applications.
The handheld computers and PDAs are normally battery-powered and are easily portable. In the handheld digital computers, a pen shaped stylus is used or fingers can also be used to write. The desktop computers can’t be carried anywhere, but are becoming more and more compact due to the incorporation of the hard drive into the monitor of the system. Moreover, the desktop computers have also enhanced the flexibility because of the technology of Bluetooth and Wireless. Typically, the desktop and the laptop computers consist of similar data storage and processing capacities. Nevertheless, in the present times the PDAs and tablet systems are gaining popularity and are gradually replacing laptops. These smaller and light weight digital computers are loaded with various tools such as email communication, internet access, and business productivity tools.
