It is a device that is used to communicate with a Computer - usually a mainframe or mini-computer. The computer contains all the processing power - that is the say the computer runs the programs but takes input and displays results on the dumb terminal.
These terminals were originally mechanical teletypes (TTY) or golfball based devices with a keyboard and printer. Later they were replaced by Video Display Units (VDUs). Video NOT Visual, so called because they were CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) based. Common examples were Digital Equipment's VT100 and IBM's 3270 Subsystem. Both of which were often emulated in the early days of PC.s
t, August 2008
