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A personal computer is something that a single person (or family) would own and use. It's probably the type of computer you're using to browse this website. Mainframe computers are usually servers of some sort.
A personal computer might cost $500 to $5,000 depending on features, a mainframe might cost $100,000 to $10,000,000 depending on features.
A personal computer is almost always sold outright, rarely are they leased. Many mainframe computers are leased at a monthly rate a small fraction of total price, thus allowing easy upgrade to the next model at a small incremental monthly cost instead of buying a whole new machine outright.
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Rene* It is difficult for me to answer this precisely as I am not related technically to Main Frames.I 've read a lot about main frames and i can hence understand though i 've not worked on them.I recommend everyone new to Main Frames to read as much as you can,different definitions to understand this concept completely.Ok coming to the question, I 've come across this very good page that explains in detail what a Main Frame OS is.It is not very precise but still gives a glimpse of what a Main Frame OS can be.Check this page, http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246366.htmland download the PDF or view the page as HTML.If there's some confusion search and read about the following
1.what an Operating System is and how it works ?
2.What are MainFrames?
on Wikipedia, or answers.com for easy understanding.
1) A mainframe will support multiple users. A personal computer originally supported only one user at a time (Windows can now have simultaneous login sessions).
2) Multitasking. A mainframe must be able to multitask between different threads. Today, PC OSs do as well but earlier versions didn't have true preemptive multitasking.
3) Remote access. Most mainframes can be remotely managed. No such requirement on a PC.
4) A mainframe should easily support a large number of processes. A PC might not be well suited to this.
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