mainframe

4 definitions found

mainframe - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  mainframe \main"frame`\ n. (Computers)
     1. A large digital computer serving 100-400 users and
        occupying a special air-conditioned room. At any given
        point in development of computer technology, the mainframe
        will be faster, have large main memeory, and be more
        capable than a minicomputer, which will in turn be
        faster and more capable than a personal computer. The
        typical personal computer in 1999 is faster than a
        mainframe was in 1970.
  
     Syn: mainframe computer.
          [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]
  
     2. The board holding the CPU and the memory forming the
        central part of a computer to which the peripherals are
        attached.
        [WordNet 1.5]

mainframe - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  mainframe
      n 1: a large digital computer serving 100-400 users and
           occupying a special air-conditioned room [syn: mainframe,
           mainframe computer]
      2: (computer science) the part of a computer (a microprocessor
         chip) that does most of the data processing; "the CPU and the
         memory form the central part of a computer to which the
         peripherals are attached" [syn: central processing unit,
         CPU, C.P.U., central processor, processor,
         mainframe]

mainframe - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  mainframe
  
     <computer> A term originally referring to the cabinet
     containing the central processor unit or "main frame" of a
     room-filling Stone Age batch machine.  After the emergence
     of smaller "minicomputer" designs in the early 1970s, the
     traditional big iron machines were described as "mainframe
     computers" and eventually just as mainframes.  The term
     carries the connotation of a machine designed for batch rather
     than interactive use, though possibly with an interactive
     time-sharing operating system retrofitted onto it; it is
     especially used of machines built by IBM, Unisys and the
     other great dinosaurs surviving from computing's Stone Age
     .
  
     It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s
     that the mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead
     (outside of the tiny market for number crunching
     supercomputers (see Cray)), having been swamped by the
     recent huge advances in integrated circuit technology and
     low-cost personal computing.  As of 1993, corporate America is
     just beginning to figure this out - the wave of failures,
     takeovers, and mergers among traditional mainframe makers have
     certainly provided sufficient omens (see dinosaurs mating).
  
     Supporters claim that mainframes still house 90% of the data
     major businesses rely on for mission-critical applications,
     attributing this to their superior performance, reliability,
     scalability, and security compared to microprocessors.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1996-07-22)
  

mainframe - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  mainframe
   n.
  
     Term originally referring to the cabinet containing the central
     processor unit or `main frame' of a room-filling Stone Age batch
     machine. After the emergence of smaller minicomputer designs in the
     early 1970s, the traditional big iron machines were described as
     `mainframe computers' and eventually just as mainframes. The term
     carries the connotation of a machine designed for batch rather than
     interactive use, though possibly with an interactive timesharing
     operating system retrofitted onto it; it is especially used of
     machines built by IBM, Unisys, and the other great dinosaurs
     surviving from computing's Stone Age.
  
     It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s that the
     mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead (outside of the
     tiny market for number-crunching supercomputers having been swamped
     by the recent huge advances in IC technology and low-cost personal
     computing. The wave of failures, takeovers, and mergers among
     traditional mainframe makers in the early 1990s bore this out. The
     biggest mainframer of all, IBM, was compelled to re-invent itself as
  a
     huge systems-consulting house. (See dinosaurs mating and killer micro
     ).
  
     However, in yet another instance of the cycle of reincarnation, the
     port of Linux to the IBM S/390 architecture in 1999 -- assisted by
  IBM
     -- produced a resurgence of interest in mainframe computing as a way
     of providing huge quantities of easily maintainable, reliable virtual
     Linux servers, saving IBM's mainframe division from almost certain
     extinction.