- Typically, large computers are called mainframes.
- Mainframes are capable of processing data at very high speeds-millions of instructions per second-and have access to billions of characters of data.
- Their principal purpose is meet the need for processing vast amounts of data quickly as organizations such as banks, insurance companies, and manufacturers but also other types of customers such as large mail-order houses, airlines with sophisticated reservation systems, government accounting services, aerospace companies doing complex aircraft design, and so on.
- In the 1960s and 1970s mainframes dominated.
- The 80s and early 90s had many people predicting that, with the advent of very powerful and affordable personal computers, that mainframes would become obsolete.
- However, the success of the Internet in the mid 90s renewed the relevance of mainframes by providing the computing capacities required by servers.
- The World Wide Web is based on the client/server paradigm, where servers on the Internet, provide services, like online shopping, to people using PCs and other personal devices as clients.