Microcomputers operating on a LAN often replace
minicomputers.
The analogy extends to online service providers that offer proprietary solutions, in the same way that
minicomputer vendors offered proprietary system software in the mid-80s.
Today, one of the
minicomputer vendors discusses this issue in terms of "bigotry" against anything but micros.
I believe that the mid-80s marked the beginning of the end for
minicomputers.
The manufacturer of the accounting software SPI used on the
minicomputer determined the product was outdated and decided to no longer support it.
With the number of PCs approaching 110 and the number of
minicomputers approaching 10, problems began to surface.
For packaging equipment, 54% of the respondents report using PlCs, 10% use microcomputers, and 9% use
minicomputers.
For example, General Automation, which was founded in 1967 to manufacture and market
minicomputers for scientific and engineering laboratories, attempted expressly to dominate that market segment by building one of the largest sales forces in the industry.
The
minicomputers commmunicate via telephone lines and modems with an identical computer in corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Then
minicomputers, which provided business with a smaller, more flexible and inexpensive alternative to hulking mainframes, were in their turn displaced by the desktop computers once known as microcomputers.
sells integrated MRP-II software that runs on IBM AS/400
minicomputers.
The swing continued, with 23% saying that their offices were planning to switch from
minicomputers to PCs.
