In some contemporary retrocomputing works I see 1970s and 1980s computers such as PDPs and VAXen increasingly referred to as "mainframes".
Weren't they supposed to be minis and superminis? Weren't mainframes different machines, such as the IBM System/360?
@amoroso um.... yes, PDPs are definitely not mainframes. I would call them minis.
@amoroso I understand to modern audiences that might sound real weird -- like a "mini" computer would instinctively be a raspberry pi, or something, but no dammit
@adr @amoroso Minicomputer is not anymore used as term, but surprisingly all other terms still make sense: super-computer > mainframe > server > workstation > personal-computer.
A super-computer is focused on mathematical calcs; a mainframe on transaction processing, usually internal to a company; a server on services, usually to the external world, but it can be in competition with a mainframe; a workstation is a professional personal computer.
Minicomputers were general-porpouse computers, playing the roles of shared personal-computers, and/or servers and/or poor-man mainframe. They existed before the born of personal-computers and servers.
Probably one of the last incarnation of minicomputers is the IBM AS/400. It is classified as midrange-computer.
