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Concept
Computer terminal
Summary
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and predated the use of a computer screen by decades.
Early terminals were inexpensive devices but very slow compared to punched cards or paper tape for input, yet as the technology improved and video displays were introduced, terminals pushed these older forms of interaction from the industry. A related development was time-sharing systems, which evolved in parallel and made up for any inefficiencies in the user's typing ability with the ability to support multiple users on the same machine, each at their own terminal or terminals.
The function of a terminal is typically confined to transcription 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" or a thin client. A personal computer can run terminal emulator software that replicates functions of a real-world terminal, sometimes allowing concurrent use of local programs and access to a distant terminal host system, either over a direct serial connection or over a network using, e.g., SSH.
The console of Konrad Zuse's Z3 had a keyboard in 1941, as did the Z4 in 1942–1945. But these consoles could only be used to enter numeric inputs and were thus analogous to those of calculating machines; programs, commands, and other data were entered via paper tape. Both machines had a row of display lamps for results.
In 1955, the Whirlwind Mark I computer was the first computer equipped with a keyboard-printer combination with which to support direct input of data and commands and output of results. The device was a Friden Flexowriter, which would continue to serve this purpose on many other early computers well into the 1960s.
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