Minicomputers

The progressive miniaturization allows smaller computers. In comparison to the room-sized models, they are called “minicomputers”. With them, commercial electronic data processing (EDV) began in the 1960s.

Major minicomputers come from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Data General, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Honeywell-Bull. The PDP-8 by DEC (1965) is one of the most popular models with a sales price of $18,000.

In the early 1970s, Intel released the first microprocessor, and computers can be built even smaller; they are called “microcomputers”. The term minicomputer remains in circulation for a few years for devices in size. Thus also the minicomputer VAX 8350 from DEC from 1987, a system with 2 processors clocked to 6.25 MHz.