On 05/04/2016 05:07 PM, ANDY HOLT wrote: > >> Is the CDC 1700 considered to be in the family of "minicomputers"? >> (i.e. was the word invented before then?). > > Though functionally it sort of had the minicomputer nature, it was > physically a bit large for that term … would have been called a > "process control" computer. I also don't think I heard the word > "minicomputer" until a couple of years after I first saw a CDC 1700.
Well, I don't know. By the time the Cyber 18 came out, it was a 120 VAC powered unit that a strongish person could lift off the floor (about 90 lbs)--and functionally pretty much the same machine as the original 1700, just implemented with more advanced technology. If that's not a minicomputer, I don't know what is. We used them as data concentrators hooked to leased lines, card readers and punches and various other peripherals. If the 1700 isn't a minicomputer, you'll have to correct the Wikipedia article. --Chuck
