Personal Computers and Mainframes: Comparison

Ah, yes...the good, old mainframe. Although the days of whirring giant cabinets in the Six Million Dollar Man, or even the out of control "WHOPPER" computer in the classic cold war movie, War Games, have largely gone the way of the dinosaur, the mainframe computer is still in use today. Although the PC has become the modern definition of "the computer," both forms of the technology have specific uses, advantages and disadvantages.

In the early 1980's, the business world in particular was embracing computer technology at a rapid pace. Other technologies, including microfilm, microfiche, and hard copy records and documents began to be phased out by the mainframe. Indeed, companies quickly became aware of the tremendous power the mainframe computer could bring to their management of data and records (Bennett, 2000), and set up systems at individual "work stations," allowing access to the information in the mainframe.

One major drawback to the widespread use of the large mainframe, however, was the immense cost. To be sure, the early mainframe computers were significantly more powerful and useful than the first "mini-computers," however, their high cost and complexity made their implementation prohibitive for small companies and individuals. However, when the first "fast" processor was developed for mini and mid-range computers (the Pentium), it became...

Not only were PC's proving that they could do almost everything that the larger mainframes could do, but at a significantly lower cost. In addition, mainframes took another hit in popularity when it became apparent that individual computers could be linked to each other via servers.
However, although many began to see the influence of the mainframe on the decline, there remained a significant gap in higher-end computing power between the mainframe and the PC that could not be bridged. Indeed, the average mainframe in use today can complete one billion instructions/second, while the average PC can only handle approximately 500 million (and the desktop, only three million). However, after one reaches a certain point in speed (especially in consideration of today's PC processors), in many industries higher end functioning is a wasted capability -- much in the way a sports car capable of doing 200 mph is of little use to a grandmother who only gets behind the wheel to go to the local grocery and back.

However, there are legitimate uses for the higher mainframe power, especially when a…