The desire to get more computing power and better reliability by orchestrating a number of low cost commercial off-the-shelf computers has given rise to a variety of architectures and configurations.

It was also the first commercial off-the-shelf portable computer used in space and the first to send an email from space, in 1991 aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-43.

The Xrange uses Linux and off-the-shelf computers instead of the proprietary systems common to previous-generation consoles.

By definition the fastest machines around, increasingly they have not been efficient enough to earn their keep in the face of ever-speedier, far less expensive off-the-shelf computers.

No off-the-shelf computer of the period could accommodate the system's needs, so he built his own dedicated computer terminals, eventually naming them for himself.

The LGP-30, standing for Librascope General Purpose and then Librascope General Precision, was an early off-the-shelf computer.

A home-brew supercomputer, assembled from off-the-shelf personal computers in just one month at a cost of slightly more than $5 million, is about to be ranked as one of the fastest machines in the world.

Several universities have shown that it is possible to hook hundreds of off-the-shelf personal computers together to create supercomputers.

Reduced cost: The price of off-the-shelf simple computers or small laptops has decreased in recent years.

Dragon was the first commercial remote sensing software package designed to use only the native capabilities of off-the-shelf personal computers.