Mainframe Computers

Mainframe Computers are much larger computers that consolidate the needs of large organizations like universities, hospitals, banks, government offices, etc. These much more powerful and expensive computers are usually stored in data centers where they connect to all the other computers using a computer network. From this room a single mainframe can serve thousands of users on the same network. Early mainframe computers were first produced in the 1950s due to the increasing processing demands of growing businesses. From then on, these mainframes have increased in power and improved in size.^[7] However, with more processing power, this requires more energy consumption, leading computer manufacturers to focus more on energy efficiency in these new computers. Manufacturers also began bundling free software with their mainframe computers as an incentive to help compete against other computer manufacturers. Eventually, a lot of these programs and several new ones were offered as separate products that they could sell rather than just giving them away for free.^[8] Today, mainframe manufacturers use advances in technology to further improve the power and efficiency of their computers, one important being virtualization, creating several virtual servers rather than physical ones that take up space.