what mainframe computer is and how it works
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Well, a mainframe computer was named for a pice of hardware that used to be used in telephone systems called a main frame. It’s sort of the ancestor of modern telecom and computer racks.
In the old days, we used the term mainframe to distinguish the ‘big iron’ computers from the smaller minicomputers and desktop microcomputers. Even in those days there was no one thing other than the physical size that you could point at and say “This is what makes this computer a mainframe.” The rule of thumb used to be…
If you can pick it up, it’s a micro.
If you can’t pick it up but you can tip it over, it’s a mini.
If you can’t budge it, it’s a mainframe.
Now a days? A mainframe is just a system made up of a whole lot of computers that aren’t all that different from the ones we have. I haven’t heard the term used professionally in, well, my entire career. They were more or less gone by the time I showed up. Minis were even pretty rare and generally pretty old.
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