A microcomputer is a typical desktop PC utilized at home and in industry. The term minicomputer utilized in two totally different situations; either bigger and more powerful than a microcomputer, or smaller and less powerful.

History

1. In late 1960s, engineers developed PCs that could do particular tasks for factories and industries that had smaller footprint than mainframe PCs. They called these machines minicomputers. Until newly, term minicomputer represented a PC that was powerful than a standard desktop, but smaller than a mainframe PC.

Trend

2. With introduction of new technologies and decrease in footprint size of hardware, major PC companies are offering minicomputer versions of their desktop and laptops.

Advantages

3. The main benefits these latest minicomputer devices have more than their bigger cousins are footprint size, weight and price.

Disadvantage

4. The benefits listed above are not created without surrender; performance and storage is decreased along with footprint size.

Purchase

5. Finally it is up to whether you must buy a small footprint minicomputer. Although you surrender performance for smaller footprint size, many applications will run on them, and these machines are excellent for web browsing, email and standard word processing.