What is the difference between a - scientific computer - business computer - general purpose computer - supercomputer?

Answer 1

These terms are somewhat obsolete today, but historically there are differences.

• Scientific computers were intended for applications with complex numerical calculations and typically had special hardware for floating point arithmetic. An example is the IBM 701 introduced in 1953.
• Business computers similarly had hardware optimized for handling text data and decimal arithmetic. An example is the UNIVAC I, introduced in 1950, another is the IBM 702, introduced in 1955.
• A general purpose computer may or may not have specialized hardware for handling decimal numbers and floating point arithmetic, but is marketed for both application areas. The first general purpose computer was the IBM System/360, introduced in 1965.
• Supercomputer generally means a computer that is at least 10 times faster than other large mainframe computers available at the same time. Supercomputers historically involved a very large, complex central processing unit and often had special array/matrix processing units as well as several special peripheral I/O processors to offload those tasks from the central processing unit. The first mass produced supercomputer was the CDC 6600, introduced in 1964. Now supercomputers typically involve large numbers of inexpensive off the shelf microprocessors to achieve high performance.