Maincomputer

Small desktop or portable computer, typically designed to be used by one person at a time, although indivudual computers can be linked in a network so that users can share data and programmes. Its central processing unit is a microprocessor, contained on a single integrated circuit.

Microcomputers are the smallest of the four classes of computer (the others are supercomputer,mainframe and minicomputer). Since the appearance in 1975 of the first commercially available microcomputer, the Altair 8800, micros have become ubiquitous in commerce, industry and education.