One funny aspect of computer history is that during the 1960s, the term “minicomputer” was introduced for machines that were much smaller than previous computers. Previously, most computers could take up one or several rooms…
But these fancy new “mini” machines were much smaller. Just look at this:
Yep, this was what was considered a “minicomputer”, since it was in fact much smaller than “mainframe” computers.
Of course, this seems to have lead to a problem when even smaller computers were introduced during the 70s and 80s, machines that were much closer to our modern desktop computers:
But since the term “minicomputer” was already taken, they decided to call these smaller machines “microcomputers” instead. And apparently some of the even smaller machines we use today (including our modern mobile phones) are sometimes refered to as “nanocomputers”.
I honestly think that maybe they should have waited a little longer with using the term “minicomputer”, since I think the terminology feels a little “off” considering the scales of the machines that they’re currently applied to. But on the other hand, I can understand that people in the 60s might not have been able to imagine having computers that you could carry around in your hand.
Then again…