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==Terminology==
'''Desk-size Computers''', as a slang of '''MiniComputers''' due to their size and usual appearance, are a type of smaller general-purpose computer with size, price, and extensibility less than a mainframe computer, but still higher than microcomputers, later commonly known as personal computers (PCs). Usage and demands of minicomputers have greatly shrunk and are being taken over by PC-based server clusters over the years, but some of them are still serving irreplaceable roles for their high reliability and extensibility.
'''Supercomputers''' are computers specifically built for high-performance mathematical/scientific calculation with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer.
Notice that the identification and distinction between PC-based clusters/servers, minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers aren't based on size, performance, or price, but system architecture, extensibility, and reliability; As integrated circuit technology evolves, a mainframe could be the size of a minicomputer (e.g. IBM System 390 Integrated Server 3006), a minicomputer could be a size of a relatively big personal computer/PC based server (e.g. IBM i5 515), while a regular laptop PC could achieve the performance of multi-million dollar mainframe in 1980s just by emulating it.
<div style="overflow-x:auto;width:100%">{|class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
|+ Comparison
! Category
|Large scaled, sophisticated, self-contained devices interconnected with a proprietary bus
|Between PC and mainframe, some devices are self-contained and directly interconnected while others rely on the central processor and system bus
|Most to all components rely on the motherboard, central processor , power supply, and system bus
|Large amounts of self-contained PCs interconnected with Ethernet or other networking standards e.g. InfiniBand
|Large amounts of computation nodes interconnected with a proprietary bus, while each node may or may not be self-contained
|-
|Statistic Reliability
|Exceeding 99.99999% uptime per year; individual components failing won't cause performance or capacity issues|99.999% to 99.9999% uptime per year; individual components failing may cripple performance or capacity, but won't affect current tasks (unless some critical components)|Poorly built ones could run into trouble every few hours under a high burden; unplanned downtime of proper prebuilt servers is around a few minutes to 1 hour per month; individual components failing always break all current tasks|Varies (usually less than 99.9999% per year) depending on SLAs and configuration; each node follows the failure model of regular PC-based servers; nodes failing may cripple performance or capacity, but won't affect current tasks|Not a priority, some supercomputers even run periodically every day; nodes failing may cripple performance or capacity, and may break current tasks
|-
|Servicability
|-
|Redundancy
|Multiple redundancy and backup at components and devices level; device-as-a-whole level redundancy is optionaland seldom used|Redundancy at components and devices level; device-as-a-whole level redundancy is optionaland sometimes used|Data and power redundancy could be achieved by practices and external devices like RAID, ECC RAM, UPS etc., otherwise no. Device-as-a-whole level redundancy is always usedif better reliability needed
|Redundancy relying on large amounts of nodes, each node itself is not redundant; Software has to be programmed in a way to handle tasking reordering and data consistency in case of node failing
|Not a priority; nodes aren't redundant and software seldom considers node failing as tasks are usually parallel to make use of peak performance
|Least concerned; programs are usually specifically built for specific supercomputer; sometimes supercomputers are even built for a specific task (e.g. Anton series)
|}
</div>
==List of Desk-size computers / Supercomputers / Mainframes==
<div style="max-width:100%; overflow:auto;">
{|class="wikitable sortable"
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|[https://github.com/andrastantos/cray-sim cray-sim]
|-
|Cray Research XMS
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|[https://github.com/andrastantos/cray-sim cray-sim]
|-
|Csiro Csirac
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|-
|Fujitsu Facom M series
|1974
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|[https://www.fujitsu.com/jp/products/computing/servers/mainframe/gs21/solution/7-pxm/ OSIV/XSP Enabling Kit for PRIMEQUEST PC-Based Server]
|-
|Fujitsu Facom VP series
|
|[https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=980&st=1 Old Computers] [http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ SIMH]
|-
|IBM System/36
|1983
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|[https://wiki.midrange.com/index.php/System/36#Why_People_Didn.27t_Migrate Open/36 - probably lost in history]</br>[https://wiki.midrange.com/index.php/System/36#Why_People_Didn.27t_Migrate Infinite36]
|-
|IBM System370 / ESA390
|IBM AS/400 / System i
|1988
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20001203025600/http://calsw.com/calsw/baby400.html BABY AS/2000 - probably lost in history]<br/>[https://infinitecorporation.com/infinite-i Infinite i]
|-
|IBM RS/6000 / System p
|1990
| style="background: Gainsboro;"| None
|
|}
</div>
==References==
<references/>
==Also See==
* [[Android emulators|Android]] / [[iOS emulators|iOS]] - This list dose not include devices that use the iOS or Android, for those, go to their respective pages.
* [[List of computers|Laptops / Luggables / Subnotebooks / Workstations / Desktops]] - Some of these classes of computers have been a standard since the late 60s.
* [[Miscellaneous Computers]]
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{{NEL}}
[[Category:Computers|*]]
[[Category:Emulated By MAME|*Various Emulation]]
