1. According To Purpose
a. general-purpose computers
? designed to do a wide variety of jobs rather
than to perform a specific activity
b. special-purpose computers
? referred to as “dedicated”
? program is built into or permanently stored in
the machine
2. According To The Type Of Data Handled
a. Analog computers
? used for scientific, engineering and process
control purposes
? deal with quantities that are continuously variable
and they give only approximate results
? may express changing relationships in output
in the form of graphs
b. Digital computers
? specializes in counting and operates by counting
values that are discrete, or separate and distinct
? results in greater accuracy and is used for business
data processing and scientific purposes
? ideal where repetitive routine arithmetic operations
are involved and when 100% accuracy is desired
c. Hybrid computers
? combines the measuring capabilities of the analog
computers and the logical and control capabilities of the digital computer
3. According To Capacity
a. Microcomputers
? a digital computer system under the control of
a stored program that uses a microprocessor, a programmable read-only memory
(ROM) and a Random Access Memory (RAM)
? flexible, low cost, good computation power
? competing with minicomputers
? small business applications
? basis for “intelligent robot arms”
b. Minicomputers
? provides faster operating speeds and larger storage
capacities than microcomputer system
? several disk drives can be used to provide on-line
access to large data files required for data-access processing
? OS supports multi-programming and virtual storage
? used in labs and commercial operations
? 10X processing capability than micro
c. Mainframes
? Enterprise-wide systems
? serves many users simultaneously
? more remote terminals
? Host processor and subordinate processing (Front
end and Back end)
? Input/Output bound processing
d. Supercomputers
? Engineering and scientific computing
? biggest and fastest machines today and it involves
billions or even trillions of calculations needed
? used for nuclear weapon development to accurate
weather forecasting
? host for networks
? processor-bound processing
? 10X mainframe