General Discussion - Workstations & PC’s

Author

Workstations & PC’s

Mauwakee

2002-07-29, 7:28 am

I know what a server is but what is the difference, if any, to a PC and a workstation?

thecomeons

2002-07-29, 7:41 am

the way i look at, so it might not be right, is a client computer in a network is referred to as a "workstation". "pc" is a more generic term for a computer, though the name, to me, implies a domestic computer.

enforcer

2002-07-29, 8:21 am

A PC was a term brought in when IBM first came out with a small computer designed to be used at home or on your desk at work. PC stands for Personal Computer. as opposed to the mainframe and large buiness PC's they produced. Previously there were plenty of different manufacturers producing computers for the home ATARI,AMIGA,COMPAQ,TOSHIBA,RES
EARCH MACHINES,TANDY, forgive me for the ones I have left out, but this was the first time a big player had provided a desktop computer and they called it a PC, then a whole lot of manufacturers jumped on board making 'PC Compatible computers' and now we are nth generation down the road from there.

Workstations are basically PC's which have a specfic purpose, that of to be clients or standalone, but generally in office and factories.

Servers are PC's which also have a specfic purpose, taht of to serve a network of workstations.

this is by no means a full and complete description, but i hope it helps

now to claim for RSI (Really Stupid Ideas)

Mauwakee

2002-07-29, 8:41 am

Yes it does thanks.

My guess was correct but wanted to be sure.
Thanks again.

Nicole

2002-07-29, 9:16 am

A lot of time manufacturers refer to "workstations" as super high-end desktops.

Which is the opposite of what most techies would choose for terminology.

gr33nd4yg1rl

2002-07-29, 2:18 pm

1) A workstation is a computer intended for individual use that is faster and more capable than a personal computer. It's intended for business or professional use (rather than home or recreational use). Workstations and applications designed for them are used by small engineering companies, architects, graphic designers, and any organization, department, or individual that requires a faster microprocessor, a large amount of random access memory (RAM), and special features such as high-speed graphics adapters. Historically, the workstation developed technologically about the same time and for the same audience as the UNIX operating system, which is often used as the workstation operating system. Among the most successful makers of this kind of workstation are Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, DEC, and IBM.
2) In IBM and other corporations, the term "workstation" is sometimes used to mean "any individual personal computer location hooked up to a mainframe computer." In today's corporate environments, many workers have such workstations. They're simply personal computers attached to a local area network (LAN) that in turn shares the resources of one or more large computers. Since they are PCs, they can also be used independently of the mainframe assuming they have their own applications installed and their own hard disk storage. This use of the term "workstation" (in IBM, sometimes called a "programmable workstation") made a distinction between the earlier "terminal" or "display terminal" (or "dumb terminal") of which the 3270 Information Display System is an example.

==============================
===========

from www.whatis.com !!

RichardJW

2002-07-29, 4:49 pm

quote:
Originally posted by enforcer
A PC was a term brought in when IBM first came out with a small computer designed to be used at home or on your desk at work.

From http://www.mindspring.com/~jforbes2/ibmpc/ibmpc.html

quote:
The IBM 5150 Personal Computer features an 8088 Intel processor, 256k of memory on the motherboard, and a monochrome display adapter driving a 5151 green/black monitor. It has two full height IBM 5.25" 360k floppy drives, and no hard drive. I have an original IBM DOS version 1.10 with it, which runs from one 160K floppy disk. The original IBM 5152 printer is an Epson MX-80 with the IBM label. This whole shebang would have cost you around $4000 back in 1983

I bought one in excellent condition about a year ago to the tune of £10/$14. This does not have a printer but otherwise complete. It does however have a 20mb hard drive. The peculiar thing is that it has an AMD processor even though this is the model 5150, the very 1st IBM P/C (the 5150 was released in 1981). I can't get any info on this, all I find is that the AMD was used in the later models. It suggests that this is a late 5150 model. It works perfectly and boots an early version of DOS.

(This is my backup machine.

)

enforcer

2002-07-30, 2:38 am

quote:
Originally posted by RichardJW

(This is my backup machine. )

pray to god your main machine doesn't fall over.

Sponsored Links