minicomputer

noun

mini·com·put·er ˌmi-nē-kəm-ˈpyü-tər

: a small computer that is intermediate between a microcomputer and a mainframe in size, speed, and capacity, that can support time-sharing, and that is often dedicated to a single application

Examples of minicomputer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Neither Rifkin nor his co-author had heard the story about minicomputers, or parts of minicomputers, taking a swim. —

Scott Kirsner, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2023 Clay led the development of the HP 2116A minicomputer, the company's first computer. —

Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 7 June 2023 So in March 1969, Xerox agreed to acquire computer-manufacturer SDS—which had made some inroads into the timeshared-computing market with minicomputers—for the eyebrow-raising price of $900 million (a value of more than $7 billion today). —

IEEE Spectrum, 1 Mar. 2023 Zeh worked on assembling and testing the minicomputers before they were shipped to customers. —

Scott Kirsner, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2023 These and the other mainframes and minicomputers of the era were room-size affairs, almost always located somewhere away from the user and almost always under the control of someone else. —

IEEE Spectrum, 1 Mar. 2023 First published in 1981, the book reveals the inner workings of Data General in the 1970s as the company strives to design and release a successful next-generation minicomputer. —

Simon Hill, WIRED, 14 Dec. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'minicomputer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.