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A computer terminal is a hardware device that allows users to enter and display data from a computer. Early terminals were slow but inexpensive, using technologies like teletypes and paper tape. As video displays were introduced, terminals replaced older input methods and became more popular. Terminals are either "dumb" and rely solely on the host computer, or "smart" with some local processing capabilities. A personal computer can also run terminal emulation software to function as a terminal.

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54 views2 pages

Computer Terminal: Jump To Navigationjump To Search

A computer terminal is a hardware device that allows users to enter and display data from a computer. Early terminals were slow but inexpensive, using technologies like teletypes and paper tape. As video displays were introduced, terminals replaced older input methods and became more popular. Terminals are either "dumb" and rely solely on the host computer, or "smart" with some local processing capabilities. A personal computer can also run terminal emulation software to function as a terminal.

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gritchard4
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Computer terminal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

The DEC VT100, a widely emulated computer terminal

IBM 2741 terminal
(keyboard/printer)

A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for


entering data into, and displaying or printing data from, a computer or a computing system.
[1]
 The teletype was an example of an early day hardcopy terminal,[2] and predated the use of a
computer screen by decades.[3]
The initialism CRT[4] (cathode-ray tube), which once referred to a computer terminal,[5] has come to
refer to a type of screen of a personal computer.[6]
Early terminals were inexpensive devices but very slow compared to punched cards or paper
tape for input, but as the technology improved and video displays were introduced, terminals pushed
these older forms of interaction from the industry. A related development was timesharing systems,
which evolved in parallel and made up for any inefficiencies of the user's typing ability with the ability
to support multiple users on the same machine, each at their own terminal/terminals.
The function of a terminal is confined to display and input of data; a device with significant local
programmable data processing capability may be called a "smart terminal" or fat client. A terminal
that depends on the host computer for its processing power is called a "dumb terminal"[7] or a thin
client.[8][9] A personal computer can run terminal emulator software that replicates the function of a
terminal, sometimes allowing concurrent use of local programs and access to a distant terminal
host system.

Contents

 1History

o 1.1Hard-copy terminals

o 1.2Early VDUs

o 1.3"Intelligent" terminals

 1.3.121st century

o 1.4Contemporary

 2Capabilities

o 2.1Character-oriented terminal

 2.1.1Text terminals

o 2.2Dumb terminals

o 2.3Graphical terminals

 3Emulation

 4Modes

 5Block-oriented terminal

o 5.1Common block oriented terminals

 6See also

 7Notes

 8References

 9External links

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