Minisupercomputer
Minisupercomputers, not to be confused with superminicomputers, constituted a class of computers that emerged in the mid-1980s. As scientific computing using vector processors became more popular, the need for lower-cost systems that might be used at the departmental level instead of the corporate level created an opportunity for new computer vendors to enter the market. As a generalization, the price targets for these smaller computers were one-tenth of the larger supercomputers. These computer systems were characterized by the combination of vector processing and small-scale multiprocessing.
Some minisupercomputer companies:
- Convex Computer – acquired by Hewlett-Packard
- Alliant Computer Systems – went bankrupt
- Floating Point Systems – acquired by Cray Research
- SuperTek – acquired by Cray Research
The appearance of even lower-priced scientific workstations based on microprocessors with high performance floating point units (FPUs) during the 1990s (such as MIPS' R6000 and IBM's POWER2 ) eroded the demand for this class of computer.