Computers vary widely in performance, size and cost. Depending upon these parameters, the computer industry classifies them into the following categories:
- Microcomputers (also referred to as micros)
- Minicomputers (also referred to as minis)
- Mainframes
- Supercomputers
The performance of a computer is measured in terms of speed of processing instructions, data storage capacity, ability to handle a large number of input and output devices, and the nature of operations it can perform (simple word processing to complex scientific calculations). Generally, computers with better performance are larger in size and cost more than computers with less processing power.