mini versus micro?

[Rob O'Donnell]

At 22:28 17/05/2005, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:


>Will they still be intended for use by one person?  I don't know why we
>didn't think of it before, but instead of "Microcomputer" it should
>perhaps be "Personal Computer".

The companies I used to work for sold the BOS operating system.. Although 
it initially ran on intentionally multi-user systems, it was entirely 
possible to run multi-user on any supported hardware with enough serial 
ports for users - including and specifically actual IBM PC "Personal 
Computers" .. (I had definitely encountered 5 user systems in use on 
8086/8088 based machines, though there weren't many left that old even when 
I started.)

The worst processor/user ratio I think I encountered was about 50 users 
sharing a 486dx50.. It was in a rack case, in the top 6" of a 4' rack, the 
rest being blocked in empty space except for a UPS sat in the bottom.  The 
users most definitely called it "the mainframe" !

Rob.