(B)

MAINFRAMES

COMPUTERS

I)MAINFRAMES COMPUTERS DEFINITION
-LARGE AND POWERFUL COMPUTER THAT HANDLES MANY CONNECTED USERS SIMULTANEOUSLY, AND USED TO HOST A LARGE AMOUNT OF DATA AND PROGRAMS.

VENDORS OF MAINFRAMES COMPUTERS:

1.International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has 90% market share

2.Bull SAS (Groupe Bull)

3.Unisys Corporation.

4.Oracle (Sun Microsystems).

5.Hewlett-Packard Company (HP)

II)APPLICATIONS OF MAINFRAMES COMPUTERS

INSURANCE COMPANIES
-To process insurance claims.

HOSPITALS
-To manage patient records and health services

BANKS
-Electronic money transfers, online bill payment.

HOTELS AND AIRLINES
-Hotel bookings, Airline flight reservations.

COMPANIES/INSTITUTION/AGENCY THAT USES SUPERCOMPUTERS:

- The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

- The National Security Agency (NSA)

- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

COMPARISON BETWEEN SUPERCOMPUTERS AND MAINFRAME COMPUTERS

CAPABILITIES	CATEGORY
CAPABILITIES	SUPERCOMPUTERS	MAINFRAMES COMPUTERS
PHYSICAL SIZE	FULL ROOM OF EQUIPMENT.	PARTIAL ROOM TO A FULL ROOM OF EQUIPMENT.
SPEED	THE FASTEST AND MOST POWERFUL TYPE OF COMPUTER WITH THOUSANDS OF PROCESSORS CAPABLE OF PROCESSING TRILLIONS OF INSTRUCTIONS PER SECOND.	A LARGE AND POWERFUL COMPUTER THAT CAN PROCESS MILLIONS OF INSTRUCTIONS PER SECOND AND HANDLE THOUSANDS OF CONNECTED COMPUTERS.
STORAGE	HIGHEST STORAGE CAPACITY THAT CAN STORE COMPLEX AND SOPHISTICATED APPLICATIONS, AND CAN STORE MORE THAN 20,000 TIMES THE DATA AND INFORMATION OF AN AVERAGE DESKTOP COMPUTER.	LARGER STORAGE CAPACITY THAT CAN STORE DATA, INSTRUCTIONS, AND INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS APPLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES.