FREE online courses on Information Technology - Chapter 9 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECTURES - The Midrange Computer Is Smaller

 

The minicomputer or midrange system generally features lower volumes of data and smaller databases. The demarcation between mainframe and midrange, however, is not always easy. Some midsized computers with extremely high transactions processing speeds are designed specifically for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) applications. Midrange computers are also used extensively in data communications systems.

 

To enhance the attractiveness of mid-sizes computers in OLTP, several vendors introduced the concept of fault tolerance, or fail-safe operations. Tandem manufactures a line of computers called Non Stop-each component is duplicated and all data are written to two different disk drives. Because organizations tend to depend on their OLTP applications, fault-tolerant computers are very attractive. The New York Stock Exchange uses a number of Tandem computers for processing transactions and the American Stock Exchange uses a Stratus computer, another fault-tolerant machine, to update stock quotations.