10 Different Types of Computers, Ranging from Wearables to Supercomputers

It's hard to picture life today without a computer. Whether it's for work or entertainment, these devices have seamlessly integrated into our daily routines. But did you know there are different types of computers, each crafted for unique functions and goals?

While the term 'computer' can refer to any device with a microprocessor, most people picture a machine that takes input via a mouse or keyboard, processes it, and shows the output on a screen. The components of computers have progressed at a rapid pace, with the bulky machines of the early '80s now a far cry from today's sleek, portable tablets and laptops.

Modern computers are not only faster but also more interconnected, thanks to the internet and advanced web technologies. Gone are the days of dial-up modems and text-based systems. Today, computers rely on WiFi and broadband connections to stream live news, HD movies, and even complex video games.

There are numerous terms used to categorize different types of computers. Most of these terms refer to the size, intended use, or performance capabilities of the device. Let’s start with the most straightforward one.

10. The All-Powerful Personal Computer

The term 'personal computer' (PC) refers to a device designed specifically for individual use. While Apple's iMac qualifies as a PC, the term is most commonly associated with computers that run the Windows operating system. Initially referred to as microcomputers, these PCs were smaller versions of the large computer systems used by businesses.

In 1981, the tech giant IBM introduced its first PC, powered by Microsoft's iconic MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System). Not to be outdone, Apple followed suit in 1983 with the release of the Lisa, one of the first PCs to feature a graphical user interface (GUI) [sources: Alfred, Cabell]. This breakthrough allowed users to interact with visual icons on screen instead of relying on a text-based interface.

Over time, technological advancements in hardware, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and random access memory (RAM), have led to significant boosts in computing power. For example, Compaq launched a 32-bit CPU in its 386 machines in 1986, and in 1993, Intel introduced the first Pentium processor [sources: PCWorld, Tom's Hardware].

Modern personal computers now feature touchscreens, various built-in connectivity options such as Bluetooth and WiFi, and continuously evolving operating systems. The form factor of these devices, whether desktop units or portable laptops, has undergone remarkable changes. Today, PCs are no longer just tools for processing data or gaming; they play a crucial role in everything from scientific research to weather forecasting.

9. Desktop

Until the mid-1980s, the desktop format was the only option available for a PC. These large, knee-crushing 'towers' were hefty enough to leave a mark on your shins. With their bulky CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors, they occupied a significant amount of space in both homes and offices. The idea was that the desktop would have a permanent spot in your setup.

In the beginning, desktops offered more power, storage, and flexibility at a lower price compared to their portable counterparts. This made them the preferred choice for many during the 1990s, when laptops were still extremely expensive [source: Britannica].

Today, desktops are significantly cheaper than they were two decades ago, and you can easily find one for just a few hundred dollars. This is a dramatic change from the hefty price tags of the '80s. For example, Hewlett-Packard's first business PC, the 300, was priced at $95,000 in 1972 [source: Comen].

As smartphones and laptops continue to dominate the market, and with their prices becoming more accessible to most consumers, desktops are slowly becoming a thing of the past. In 2017, global desktop sales fell below 100 million, a sharp contrast to the 161.6 million laptops sold in the same year [source: Moore-Colyer].

But don’t mourn for the desktop. This PC format is being replaced by equally powerful devices that come with the added benefit of portability. Plus, hardcore gamers still swear by desktops for their raw power.

8. Laptop

There was a time when using a PC meant having to rely on a desktop. Engineers simply couldn’t manage to fit the complex systems of a PC into a portable unit. But in the mid-1980s, many leading computer manufacturers began pushing to make laptop computers more mainstream.

Laptops are portable computers that combine the display, keyboard, pointing device or trackball, processor, memory, and hard drive into one compact, battery-operated package roughly the size of a standard hardcover book.

The first true commercial laptop was a far cry from the sleek models we see today. The Osborne 1, launched in 1981, retailed for about $1,800, featured 64 kb of memory, and weighed a whopping 24 pounds (10 kilograms). While it gave your arms a workout, its 5-inch (12-centimeter) screen also worked your eyes [source: Computing History].

Thankfully, manufacturers quickly started improving the design and feel of laptops. Just two years later, Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model 100 squeezed its components into a 4-pound (8-kilogram) frame, though it lacked significant power.

By the end of the decade, NEC’s UltraLite shattered expectations by packing real computing performance into the first true notebook (i.e., ultra-light laptop) style, weighing only 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms). The competition for ultra-portability was officially on [source: Bellis]. However, laptops didn’t surpass PCs in sales until 2005 [source: Arthur].

7. Netbooks and Tablets

Netbooks are ultra-portable computers, even smaller than regular laptops. Priced around $200, they offer an incredibly affordable option, cheaper than almost any brand-new laptop you’ll find on the market. However, their internal components are less powerful compared to regular laptops [source: Krynin].

Introduced in 2007, netbooks were primarily designed for internet use and web-based tasks, such as checking email, streaming music and movies, and browsing the web. These compact devices often feature stripped-down specifications. With displays as small as 6-7 inches (15-18 centimeters), limited storage (often topping out at 64GB), and sometimes lacking ports like USB or HDMI, netbooks cater to users who prioritize portability over power. Many are made by smaller manufacturers, as the larger brands aren't interested in the low profit margins these cheaper machines offer [source: Lenovo].

Due to their relatively slow processors and limited memory, netbooks are not suited for demanding tasks like graphic design or gaming. Instead, their strength lies in the activity that defines them: web browsing [source: Krynin].

Tablets have mostly taken over the role once filled by netbooks. Tablets are thin, flat devices resembling larger versions of smartphones. While Lenovo first produced them in 2000, Apple popularized the form with the release of the iPad in 2010 [source: Bort].

Tablets can perform many of the same functions as laptops, but without the internal fans found in PCs. As a result, they rely on less powerful processors that consume less heat and battery life. They also have less storage capacity than traditional PCs. Older tablets ran mobile phone operating systems, but newer models now operate on full systems like Microsoft Windows 10 [source: Lenovo].

Tablets offer greater portability than PCs, with longer battery life, while also allowing for smartphone-like features such as taking photos, playing games, and drawing with a stylus. For users who prefer a keyboard, many tablets come with either attached or detachable keyboards, providing the best of both worlds.

6. Handheld Computers

Early 20th-century computers famously filled entire rooms. Now, you can carry far more processing power in your pocket. Handheld devices like smartphones and PDAs are some of the most iconic inventions of our time [source: Arthur].

First introduced in the 1990s, personal digital assistants (PDAs) were compact computers that often used flash memory for storage instead of hard drives. These devices typically lacked physical keyboards and relied on touchscreen technology for user input. Smaller than a paperback novel, PDAs were lightweight, had decent battery life, and served as essential tools for managing calendars, emails, and simple messages [source: Britannica]. Do you remember the Palm Pilot and the BlackBerry?

As smartphones took over, PDAs quickly became obsolete. Devices like the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy combined the functionality of a PDA with full computer capabilities, offering touchscreens, high-speed processors, ample storage, comprehensive connectivity options (Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.), dual cameras, superior audio, and many other features that would have seemed impossible to engineers just a few decades ago.

Although smartphones have been around in various forms since 2000, it wasn't until the launch of the iPhone 3G in 2007 that these devices became mainstream. The design, feel, and functionality of that iPhone set the standard for all the smartphones that followed [source: Nguyen].

5. Workstation

A workstation is essentially a desktop computer, but with more muscle: it boasts a faster processor, extra memory, high-end graphics cards, and specialized features for handling tasks like 3D graphics or game development [source: Intel].

Workstations, like standard desktop computers, are designed for individual use. However, they stand apart from regular desktops with their much higher processing speeds. These powerhouse machines are typically bought by businesses like engineering firms or multimedia companies to meet their specific needs [source: TechTarget].

Workstations come with a hefty price tag. While you can pick up a regular desktop for a few hundred dollars, a workstation will set you back much more — often three times the cost. Entry-level workstations start around $1,500, and the price quickly climbs [source: Benton].

While inexpensive desktops are often built with cheap and sometimes unreliable components, workstations are crafted for performance. Designed for demanding tasks like overnight number crunching or animation rendering, workstations feature high-quality parts, including redundant hard drives for data security, faster processors, and high-capacity solid-state drives.

All of these upgrades point to a computer that’s intended for serious, profit-driven work rather than simple tasks like word processing or casual gaming like Minesweeper [source: Benton].

4. Server

Servers, designed to offer services to other computers across a network, are equipped with high-performance processors, substantial memory, and extensive hard drives for maximum efficiency.

Unlike desktops or laptops, you don’t use a server directly by sitting down and typing on it. Instead, a server delivers computing power — often substantial — via a local area network (LAN) or the internet. Servers are essential to businesses of all sizes, providing data, processing orders, managing shipping information, solving scientific equations, and much more. Many servers are housed in racks within dedicated server rooms, sometimes resembling vast warehouses.

Servers, like regular PCs, consist of standard computer components such as motherboards, RAM, video cards, power supplies, and robust network interfaces. However, they typically lack dedicated displays. Instead, IT professionals use a single monitor to manage and configure multiple servers, combining their computing strength to increase speed and capacity.

Ever wonder how a service like Google can predict your search queries instantly and provide answers to your questions in seconds? It's all powered by servers. Estimates suggest the company operates around 2.5 million servers across vast data centers located around the globe [source: Data Center Knowledge].

3. Mainframe

In the early days of computing, mainframes were massive machines that could occupy an entire room or even a full floor! As technology has progressed, computers have shrunk in size while becoming exponentially more powerful. The term 'mainframe' is now rarely used, replaced by the term 'enterprise server.' However, it’s still frequently referenced in large corporations to describe the massive systems that process millions of transactions daily, all while meeting the demands of hundreds, if not thousands, of individual users.

Traditionally, mainframes were seen as large, centralized computers connected to less powerful devices like workstations. However, this distinction is becoming less clear as smaller machines grow in power and mainframe systems become more adaptable [source: IBM].

Mainframes originated in the post-World War II era when the U.S. Department of Defense intensified efforts to fight the Cold War. While servers have multiplied, mainframes continue to manage some of the most massive and intricate databases globally. They are crucial in safeguarding sensitive transactions, such as mobile payments and confidential corporate data [source: Alba].

In fact, IBM, a leading maker of mainframes for over fifty years, experienced a significant uptick in mainframe sales in 2018, marking the first such increase in five years. This resurgence is partially due to mainframes' ability to deliver immense computing power in a footprint smaller than that of a modern rack of high-speed servers [source: Hall].

2. Supercomputer

These powerful computers typically cost hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. While some supercomputers are standalone systems, most are built from multiple high-performance computers working together as one. Cray Supercomputers are among the most famous manufacturers of these machines.

While both supercomputers and mainframes are designed to tackle the most demanding industrial and scientific tasks, their roles differ. Mainframes are optimized for maximum data reliability, whereas supercomputers are built for lightning-fast processing power.

Supercomputers are the Formula 1 cars of the computing world, engineered for speed to tackle calculations that would take other systems days, weeks, or even months to finish.

These machines are often used in places where speed is paramount, such as atomic research centers, intelligence agencies, scientific institutions, and weather forecasting stations. For instance, the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), known for its cutting-edge weather forecasting capabilities, uses some of the world’s fastest computers, capable of more than 8 quadrillion calculations per second [sources: Hardawar, NOAA].

The immense computational power of supercomputers comes at a steep cost. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Summit supercomputer had a price tag of $200 million. It's the first supercomputer designed specifically to handle artificial intelligence applications [source: Wolfson].

1. Wearable

The emerging trend in computing is the development of wearable devices. These gadgets integrate common computer functions such as email, multimedia, calendars, and databases into everyday objects like watches, cell phones, visors, and even clothing. Many of these wearables are tailored for outdoor enthusiasts and fitness buffs, helping them track location, altitude, calories burned, steps, speed, and much more.

The Apple iWatch, now in its eighth version, is widely regarded as one of the top wearable devices available. This compact watch offers many features similar to those found on a full-fledged smartphone, including texting, emailing, and even making phone calls thanks to its built-in cellular functionality. Unlike some smartwatches that require pairing with a phone for calls, the iWatch comes with a built-in phone. Additionally, it includes an electrocardiogram sensor that allows you to monitor your heart's electrical activity and instantly share the results with your healthcare provider [source: Apple].

However, smartwatches are just the beginning. Wearable technology is expanding into other areas, such as smart clothing accessories, eyeglasses, belts, sleep trackers, heart rate monitors, and intelligent earphones. A company named MC10 is even promoting skin patches that can monitor various biological functions within the body [source: Pervasive Computing].

Wearables are opening up a whole new realm of personal computing. Their versatility and groundbreaking potential highlight the notion that the computing revolution is far from over. In fact, it may be that the era of personal computers is only just beginning.