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Before the invention of the microcomputer, computer's were large, complex, and expensive, often occupying entire rooms. The microcomputer was much smaller, and could easily fit on a desktop. While they initially had limited processing power and memory, they were relatively cheap and become popular as home computers. From the 80's onwards, they became more and more powerful, but with the advent of the IBM Personal Computer and its compatibles, they became easier to maintain, highly upgradable and (gradually) more user-friendly -- making them ideal business machines as well as home computers. The term microcomputer isn't used very often these days -- it simply means small computer -- but it differentiates home and business computers from mainframes and supercomputers. Today, the need for desktop microcomputers is much less, however the term encapsulates laptops and other mobile devices which have begun to replace the desktop PC to a large extent.

The disadvantage of the microcomputer is the lack of processing power. While they are by no means under-powered for the tasks they were intended to fulfil, we still need mainframes and supercomputers for their superior transaction and mathematical processing abilities. So, ultimately, the only real disadvantage of a microcomputer is when it is used inappropriately.

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12y ago

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