The Mini and Micro Industries

Reviewer: William B. Gruener

Gordon Bell's excellent article appears in a special issue of Computer which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the IEEE. The theme of this issue is “The State of Computing.” Bell overviews the mini- and microcomputer industries. He points out that the two industries are very different: the minicomputer industry is a total-package oriented industry with hierarchical structure delivering total systems; the microcomputer industry is stratified with multitudinous players producing small parts, with the user pulling the parts together to make a total system. Bell believes these structures occurred because the minicomputer industry resulted from offshoots of mainframe companies, while the microcomputer industry resulted from either entrepreneurial efforts, formal standards demanding tight constraints, or product segmentation. Although informal by design the article is structured as follows: Introduction (The following two sections examine the marketplace.) (1)Minicomputer Generation: overview and statistics about the industry and a look at Data General, Prime, DEC, IBM, HP. (2)Microprocessor Generation: overview of industry from the entrepreneurial, standards, and product segmentation viewpoints. (These four sections focused on the fact that the constraints of the product created the industry.) (3)Mini- and Microcomputing Structures: LAN, Nodes. (4)The Systems Industry (5)The Applications Challenge (6)Summary Appendix: Specific Mini- and Microcomputer Architectures In addition to the above, the article offered five special boxes covering these topics: Survey of minicomputer attempts; patterns of industry growth and change (quick overview of generations); semiconductor technology determines computer class; seven well done charts/graphs; and questions about the microcomputer industry. Because of the wealth of information on significant architectures, this article is almost a quick course in computer architecture for the informed reader. The presentation is in an informative, friendly style. The graphics are understandable and of high quality. There is no subjective statement about the minicomputer industry vis-a-vis the microcomputer industry, nor does Bell evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of either industry.