Pcs and Mainframes

PCs and Mainframes

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PCs and Mainframes

Most people today know the basics about computers from a Personal Computer or PC, but the name Mainframe is still a subject that fewer people have knowledge of. The PC has become part of our everyday lives. Without a PC in today’s world, it is challenging to communicate or even work. This paper will show some basic comparisons and concepts between the Personal Computer and the Mainframe.

First, a mainframe computer is a digital computer designed for high-speed data processing with heavy use of input/output units such as large-capacity disks and printers. They have been used for such applications as payroll computations, accounting, business transactions, information retrieval, airline seat reservations, and scientific and engineering computations (Mainframes, 2010). Mainframe computers are centralized and users access the information on a mainframe via a workstation. A workstation is like a personal computer, but is only an access point with all the actual computing performed on the mainframe. Mainframes are often used to 'batch' transactions in financial institutions, which is one of the best ways to process large transaction capacities and keep the large databases required by such companies. A mainframe is more stable with fewer points of failure or ways of entry for viruses. Some other advantages of mainframes are higher processing speeds multiple processors, allowing multiple applications to be used simultaneously and by many users.

The disadvantages of mainframes are their large up-front costs, slower running speeds, difficulty in data integration, and finding people skilled in working with mainframes (Mainframes, 2012). When something does go wrong with a mainframe, it is not as easy as a reboot. Even considering that a mainframe will crash less often than a PC, it is worth pointing out that while a PC crash is inconvenient, a mainframe crash can be devastating.

Secondly, a personal computer is a digital...