Computer terminals are hardware used to enter, retrieve and display electronic data. They have evolved from electromechanical devices like teletypewriters to modern desktops and laptops connected to a central server. Today, terminals can connect to the internet and be accessed remotely with handheld devices.
A computer terminal is the hardware used to enter, retrieve and display electronic data. While many people think of the modern desktop or laptop computer placed on a workstation as a terminal, these devices are just the latest types of terminals that have been used over the years. With the advent of computers in the 1940s and 1950s, the concept of a workstation that allowed information to be entered into a database, as well as information being retrieved based on queries, the original concept of a terminal was born.
One of the earliest examples of this type of electromechanical hardware was the common teletypewriter. While various makes and models varied somewhat in design, most included a keyboard that closely resembled a typewriter. This typing station was connected to the computer system that housed the stored data. By using the keyboard to enter a query and pressing a specific key to initiate the search, the system locates the answer, then prints the answer onto the staple-fed paper used by the teleprinter. Terminals of this type gained popularity in many publishing and media companies during the 1950s, as the use of these electronic brains to conduct fact checks helped these companies constantly update and maintain large amounts of information on all types of data.
Most of these early devices required the use of punched cards to add information to a database. Punched cards were created by using equipment to punch a small rectangular card at specific points along the body of the card. Each card was inserted into a slot on the terminal, allowing the system to read the card and convert the information into electronic data which was then stored in the system’s memory banks. It was this stored data that the system would access when a query was made, translating the data into a common language and using one or more teleprinters to deliver a printout of the response.
With the technological advances of the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of a computer terminal began to change slightly. Instead of a small number of terminals connected to a mainframe, the idea arose of a network of desktop connections via a central server. By the 1990s, many companies’ workstations were no longer equipped with devices like typewriters, but instead came with a hard drive, monitor, and keyboard small enough to fit on a regular desk. In some cases, these newer terminals also included a printer, although many businesses have opted to use a single printer to serve multiple terminals simultaneously. As technology has continued to improve the electronic functions of these new systems, individual printers at individual workstations have become more common.
Today a computer terminal allows the user not only to connect with data stored on a hard disk, or data stored on a common server within the company, but also with the wealth of information found on the Internet. This contemporary configuration of the terminal continues to undergo changes. Advances in technology now make it possible to use laptops and even some handheld devices to remotely connect with databases, enter and retrieve data, and generally perform all tasks that were once only possible in an office environment.
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