6- CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTER

We see many Computers nearby, But they all are different from each other. In this chapter, we are going to know about the basics and classification of computers which included all the different types of computers.

We can classify computer according to the following three categories:

• On the basis of Hardware and design and type.
• On the basis of Purposes.
• On the basis of Size.

On the basis of Hardware design and type:

There are three types of computer basis on hardware design and type;

1. Analog Computer.
2. Digital Computer.
3. Hybrid Computer.

1- Analog Computer:

An analog computer performs tasks using continuous data (the physical amount that changes continuously). Analog computers are used primarily to measure physical units like voltage, pressure, electric current, temperature, and convert them into digits.

 

Any things that is variable with respect to time and continuous can be claimed as analog just like an analog clock measures time by means of the distance traveled for the spokes of the clock around the circular dial.

 

It is used to measure and perform arithmetic calculations of numbers, the length of an object, or the amount of voltage that passes through a point in an electrical circuit. Analog computers obtain all their data from some measurement way.

 

Analog computers are mainly used in the fields of science and engineering. Analog computers are slow and equipped to measure things rather than countable or check. 

 

Example of Analog computer: Mercury thermometer, Needle clock, E6B flight computer, Deltar, Librascope, aircraft weight and balance computer etc.

2- Digital Computer:

A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system because this computer understands only digits i.e. 0’s and 1’s. All the content that is written in English will be converted to binary language and thus computers and humans communicate with each other. 

 

These are the devices through which we provide some input and get the output within a fraction of seconds.

Example of Digital computer: Desktop, Laptop, Notebook, Ipad, Smartphone, E-reader, Flash drive, Digital Camera etc.

3- Hybrid Computer:

Hybrid computers are computers that exhibit features of Analog computers and Digital computers. The digital component normally serves as the controller and provides logical and numerical operations, while the analog component often serves as a solver of differential equations and other mathematically complex equations.

 

Hybrid computer are used in several applications such as:

• 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.
  
• Holtor Monitoring 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.

Example of hybrid computer: Thermometer, Auto gasoline pump, ICU, Ultrasound machine, CT scan machine, Electrocardiogram machine, Echocardiogram machine etc.

On the basis of Purpose:

There are two types of computer basis on purpose:

1. General purpose computer.
2. Special purpose computer.

1- General purpose computer:

A general purpose computer is one that, given the appropriate application and required time, should be able to perform most common computing tasks like word processing, documents, reports, accounting, printing, database managements, listen audio, watch video, internet surfing, e-mail e-commerce etc. 

 

Example of general purpose computer: Desktop, Laptop, Notebook, Smartphone, Ipad etc.

2- Special purpose computer:

Special purpose computers are those that are made to do special tasks. And mostly its does only one task (task related to that particular field). They are also known as dedicated computers, because they are dedicated to perform a single task over and over again.

Some uses of special purpose computer are:

• Space Science.
  
  
  
• Meteorology.
• Control of Missile in Battle field.
• Satellite operation.
• Medical and Medicine department.
• Physics and Chemistry Laboratory.
• Traffic control.
• Oceanography.
• Agriculture Science
• Engineering Design.

Example of special purpose computer:  ATM, Wishing machine, Weather forecasting simulator, Traffic control computer, Defence oriented computers, Traffic light controller, Military planes controlling computers, Oil exploration system, Surveillance equipment etc.

 

 On the basis of Size:

 

There are four types of computer basis on size:

1. Micro Computer.
2. Mini Computer.
3. Mainframe Computer.
4. Super Computer. 

1- Micro computer:

Micro computer, an electronic device with a microprocessor as its central processing unit (CPU). After the invention of microprocessor, it became possible to create Micro computer. Micro computer was formerly a commonly used term for personal computers, particularly any of a class of small digital computers whose CPU is contained on a single integrated semiconductor chip. 

Through this, in any business, letter drafting, applications, reports, documents, accounting, database management, listen to songs, watch videos etc. works are done by this computer. The price of this computer is up to 1 lac.

2- Mini computer:

A minicomputer is a computer which has all the features of a large size computer, but its size is smaller than those. A minicomputer lies between the mainframe and the microcomputer because its size is smaller than the former one and larger than the latter one.

 

Mini computers may contain one or more processors, support multiprocessing and tasking, and are generally resilient to high workloads. Although they are smaller than mainframe or supercomputers, minicomputers are more powerful than personal computers and workstations.  

 

Mini computers are used for Scientific and Engineering computations, Business-transaction processing, preparing of large Payroll, Costs analysis, Sales analysis, Production planning, Reservation system, in Banks, File handling, and Database Management, and are often now referred to as small or midsize servers. Its cost is of near about 1 million or more.

3- Mainframe computer:

Mainframe computer likes as a big centralized machine that contains the large memory, huge storage space, multiple high grade processors, so it has ultra processing power compare to micro and mini computers.

 

So, the importance of mainframe is increasing for large scale organization, scientific research, consumer statistics, and census data, because it is capable to execute multiple complex programs concurrently at the ultra speed.  

Mainframe computers are very expensive, and these types of computer cannot be used in the home. Due to its more processing power, they are used by large scale companies, banks, other government sectors, e-tickets, stock-exchange, insurance sectors, telecommunications, finance sectors, reservation system for railway and airlines etc. 

 

The mainframe computer kept on for 24 hours because its used for central computer to a specific departments. The cost of mainframe computers are near about 10 million or more.

4- Super computer:

Supercomputers have a huge performance compare to other using general purpose computer because its architectural and operational model depend on the parallel and grid processing. Primary motive to design of supercomputer was to be used in large scale organizations where need more computing power.

Supercomputer has a power to execute many processes simultaneously on thousand of processors, because these types of processors can execute billions and trillion of instructions per seconds, so its computing performance matrix is FLOPS (that is floating-point operations per second). So these types of supercomputers are more expensive they can 5 million dollars to 200 million dollars.

 

The main functions of supercomputer are:

• The super computers are able to solve large amount of calculations and complicated calculation as well.
• Hundreds users are capable to access multiple tasks at same times.
• Researches and discovery in large amount of scientific research and laboratories.
• Sending astronauts to space travel.
• Weather forecasts.
• Animation films.
• Launching and monitoring satellites.
• For oil and gas exploration, converting seismic data into maps that indicate where to drill oil and/or gas wells. 

Example of supercomputer: Titan, IBM sequoia, K computer, Tianhe-1, Jaguar, IBM Roadrunner, Nebulae, Kraken, Pleiades, Jugane, Cray/HPE Piz Daint, Dell frontera, Nudt Tianhe-2, Sunway Taihulight, Summit, Param Al and Mihir, Pratiyush, Padma, Anupam, Anurag, Aditya, Bramha, Shivay etc.