Minisupercomputer
Minisupercomputers* constituted a class of computers that emerged in the mid-1980s. As scientific computing in the form of vector processors became more popular, the need for lower-cost systems that might be used at the departmental level instead of the corporate level created a market opportunity for new computer vendors to enter the market. As a generalization, the price targets for these smaller computers were one-tenth of the larger supercomputers. These computer systems were characterized by the combination of vector processing and small-scale multiprocessing. (* not to be confused with superminicomputerss ) Some minisupercomputer companies: Convex Computer – acquired by Hewlett-Packard Alliant Computer Systems – went bankrupt Floating Point Systems – acquired by Cray Research SuperTek – acquired by Cray Research The appearance of even lower-priced scientific workstationss based on microprocessors with high performance floating point units (FPUs) during the 1990s (such as MIPS' R6000 and IBM's POWER2 ) eroded the demand for this class of computer.
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