from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A large powerful computer, often serving many connected terminals and usually used by large complex organizations.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A large, powerful computer able to manage very many simultaneous tasks and communicate with very many connected terminals; used by large, complex organizations (such as banks and supermarkets) where continuously sustained operation is vital
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A large digital computer serving 100-400 users and occupying a special air-conditioned room. At any given point in development of computer technology, the mainframe will be faster, have large main memeory, and be more capable than a
minicomputer, which will in turn be faster and more capable than a personal computer. The typical personal computer in 1999 is faster than a mainframe was in 1970.
- n. The board holding the CPU and the memory forming the central part of a computer to which the peripherals are attached.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a large digital computer serving 100-400 users and occupying a special air-conditioned room
- n. (computer science) the part of a computer (a microprocessor chip) that does most of the data processing
Sorry, no etymologies found.
The Human Mainframe: We always knew that Rossum had ill intentions, but the revelation that the Attic's use of human brains to propel the corporation's mainframe is pretty messed up — especially when that power is generated by nightmares that include eating your own severed legs and watching your friends die on an endless loop.
“The mainframe is in sub basement four,” Davin said from behind Rose.
“Mr. DeVries … The report on the 2 hour outage of our mainframe is complete.”
System 360 turns 40 – 70 percent of the world’s data are still housed in mainframe computers … [via]
If it existed outside a computer mainframe, that is.
I would argue that the successor to the mainframe was the mini.
IBM is aiming its hybrid mainframe, which is designed to manage other systems too, at the datacentre simplification effort.
IBM is aiming its hybrid mainframe, which is designed to manage other systems too, at the data center simplification effort.
It's been three years engineering the latest generation of its so-called mainframe-borrowing X-Architecture.
Attendees can expect to take away from these events ideas for a range of options most suitable for their own situations, including: moving off the mainframe to another platform, continuing forward secure in the knowledge that the mainframe is the right platform for their situation and organisation, or choosing an approach that may be somewhere in between.