Presently we have to many types of Computers broadly we can classify them on the basis of Uses, on the basis of functionality and also on the basis of size and capacity.
On the basis of size and capacity
On the Basis of uses
General Purpose Computer
The computers that perform variety of task known as general purpose computers. They also have ability to store many types of program. But general purpose computers can perform variety of task related to text, graphic, video, audio, internet etc.
We can do general works like creating letters, excel sheet, printing documents, saving files, listening music, playing videos etc. with these computers.
Laptop, Personal computer, Desktop computers are the examples of general purpose computers.
Special Purpose or Dedicated computer
A computer that are designed to operate on a restricted class of problems or any specific task are called dedicated or special purpose computer. Dedicated or special purpose computers are used for Weather Forecasting, Automated teller machine, Air traffic control. They are very fast as compared to general purpose computers.
They can control automatically some fixed task. Special-purpose computers can be effectively used in combination with general-purpose computers—for example, to solve special problems in the preparation and processing of information and to solve problems in the simulation of various processes.
On the Basis of Functionality
Analog Computer
Analog computers work on the principle of measuring, in which the measurements obtained are translated into data. They measure continuous physical magnitudes like pressure, temperature, speed or weight.
So we can say that Analog Computers can process continuous form of data and also produce information in continuous form. You know, the Analog computers perform calculations in real time that’s why it is faster than Digital computers.
It Has Low Accuracy but Faster than another computers. It has less or no Storage capacity. Examples of Analog computers are
- Speedometer
- Voltmeter
- Oscilloscope
- Nomograph
Digital Computer
The data representation in Digital computers is in Discrete ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ form of electric transmission. It Operates on Data like Numbers, magnitude, Symbols that are expressed in Binary codes using only digits 0 or 1.
Digital computer can process logical and mathematical problems also.So It is possible to store information in Digital computers.But these are slow as compared to analog..
A binary digit 0 or 1 is called a bit. The group of Bits represented the Information in digital computers. By using various coding techniques, groups of bits can be made to represent not only binary numbers but also other discrete symbols, such as decimal digits or letters of the alphabet.
A Digital computer can perform various forms of jobs like analyze or organize vast amount of business data, drawing works, video and audio editing job, control industrial process, and even regulate the operations of machines.
Hybrid Computer
As we can’t ignore the fast processing of analog and accuracy of digital computer. At present in the Medical and research field the hybrid computers are in demand.The Hybrid computer is developed to solve the specific issue. The objective of designing of this computer to perform complicated calculations. The large scale organisation to solve logical and technical calculations and offers great processing of differential equations.
Example of Hybrid Computer
- Petrol pump – Measurement convert fuel flow into currency rate
- Measurement of patient’s heartbeat
- Scientific laboratory
- Applied psychology
- Control industrial process.
- Defense sector
- Airlines sector
- Ships
- Cement plant
- Gas Pump Station
- Radar systems
- Scientific calculations
- Weather system computation
- Monitoring and controlling nuclear reactor
- Electrocardiogram machine
- Echocardiogram machine
- Ultrasound machine
- CT scan machine
- ATM machine
- Hospital – Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
- Car that runs on gas and electricity
- Cell phone – Grab analog sound, and transform into digital signals then finally broadcast it on digital data network, and user can receive it and fed into analog speaker.
On the Basis Of Size and Capacity
Micro Computer
The small size computer which is used by a single person and having a single chip microprocessor. These are portable computers used by individuals also known as PC (personal computer). examples are
Desktop, Laptop, Palmtop, PDA (personal Digital Assistant), Tablet, Smartphone, smartbook, carputers (in-car computers), Rackmount computers etc.
Mini Computer
Minicomputers are mid range computers The multi-user computers lie between the capabilities of Micro and mainframe computers called mini computers. PDP -11, Data General Eclipse or IBM series/1 were the examples of 16-bit Mini computers. Supermini means powerful minicomputers like DEC VAX or Data General Eclipse MV/8000.
The mini computers are useful in small organisations or offices having more storage and speed than Micro computers. It can have multiple processors.
Mainframe Computer
More powerful than mini and Micro computers, the Mainframe computers are working at very high speed with hundreds of millions of users simultaneously. Most of the time mainframe computers used as a server computers.
It is possible to run multiple different instances of operating system on Modern Mainframes computer. Mainframes emphasize throughput computing as it can handle High volume of Input and output .The speed of Mainframe measured in millions of instructions per second (MIPS). They are used for real time processing like railwa reservations, banking system etc.
examples are-
IBM’s 700/7000 series, IBM 360 Series, IBM z series
Super Computer
The most powerful, expensive, with very high speed and storage capacity computers are Supercomputers. The speed of calculation is measured in floating point operations per second or FLOPS. So it is used in the field of quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modelling.
examples are Cray-1
Read: The Best Laptop for the student
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