This slide briefly explain about classification of compputers

1. J. Anne Shirley
Assistant Professor
Bon Secours College, Thanjavur.

2.  Computers are available in different shapes and
weights, due to these different shapes and sizes they
perform different sorts of jobs form one another.
Computers are classify according to: Purpose, Type,
Capacity/size
 There are two main groups under this purpose
category, these are:
 Special purpose
 General purpose

3.  Special Purpose Computers A computer is said to be
special purpose if it is designed to solve a specific class
of problem for which it was made.
 Examples of special purpose computers
 Computers for chemical processes
 Computers in digital watches.
 General Purpose Computers A general purpose
computer is not limited to the number of applications it
can be used for.

4.  By Type There are three main types of computers
under this class. They include:
 Digital computers
 Analogue computers
 Hybrid computers

5.  Digital computers These are computers that
represent data /information in a binary form. That is
they represent signals in just two states. 0s and 1s
are used during data communication.
 Examples of digital computers
 Desktop computers
 Laptop computers
 Mobile phones
 iPhones

6.  Analog computer were commonly used for
scientific & engineering problems, particularly in
chemical industry, electric power plants, and
petroleum refineries.
 These type of computers are rarely use in current
world. For Example: Electric current meter, Fuel
pump station meters etc.
 These analog computers represent data/information
in a continuous form. That is there are no breaks
during signal transmission

7.  The combination of features of analog and digital
computer is called Hybrid computer.
 Used in various areas of engineering, space vehicle
simulation and training of astronauts, passenger
flight radar system, also used to control robots.
 The digital component normally serves as the
controller and provides logical operations, while the
analogue component normally serves as a solver of
different equations.

8.  Classification of Computer by Size: There are four
main classifications of computers by size:
 Micro-computers
 Minicomputers
 Mainframe computer
 Supercomputers

9.  Mainframe computers are those computers that
offer faster processing and grater storage area. It is
also known as Father computer.
 There are several organizations such as banks,
insurance companies, railways etc that need on-
line processing of large number of transactions &
require computer system which have massive data
storage & processing capabilities.

10.  The term micro-computer is generally synonymous
with personal computer (PC), or a computer that
depends on a microprocessor.
 Micro-computers are designed to be used by
individuals. There are two sub categories in it. One
is PC which is less in price & reliability, other is
Workstation which is expensive in price

11.  A minicomputer is a type of computer that possesses
most of the features and capabilities of a large
computer but is smaller in physical size.
 A minicomputer may also be called a mid-range
computer.
 These are also small general purpose system. They
are generally more powerful and most useful as
compared to micro computer.
 Minicomputer is usually designed to serve multiple
users simultaneously.

12.  Super computer are those computer which are
designed for scientific job like whether forecasting
and artificial intelligence etc.
 They are fastest and expensive.
 A super computer contains a number of CPU
which operate in parallel to make it faster.

13. Thank you