Technology '82. Minis and mainframes

Mainframes inched ahead in performance in 1981-a familiar trend ever since the beginning of computer time - while superminicomputers got more "super" and therefore became the equal of some mainframes. Distinctions have blurred all along the line; several microcomputer systems today are equivalent to low-end minicomputers, and a microcomputer system from one manufacturer - billed as a "micromainframe" - is equivalent in some configurations to a low-end mainframe [see Microprocessors, p. 32].