Jan's Computer Basics:3-4 Terminals

Computer Basics

3 - Input: Terminals

A terminal consists of a keyboard and a screen so it can be considered an input device, especially some of the specialized types.

Some come as single units.

Terminals are also called:

Display Terminals
Video Display Terminals or VDT

A dumb terminal has no ability to process or store data.

It is linked to minicomputer, mainframe, or super computer. The keyboard and viewing screen may be a single piece of equipment.

An intelligent, smart, or programmable terminal can process or store on its own, at least to a limited extent. PCs can be used as smart terminals.

A point-of-sale terminal (POS) is an example of a special purpose terminal. These have replaced the old cash registers in nearly all retail stores. They can update inventory while calculating the sale. They often have special purpose keys.

For example, McDonalds has separate touchpads for each food item available.

Credit card readers, fingerprint scanners, and the like are special purpose devices that send data to a computer for recognition.

Where you are: JegsWorks > Lessons > Computer Basics
	1. Computer Types
	2. Applications
	3. Input Intro Keyboard: framed no frames Pointing Devices Terminals Multimedia Data Automation Data Accuracy Quiz
	4. Processing
	5. Output
	6. Storage
	7. Computer to Computer
	8. System Software
	9. Programming

	10. What You See
	11. Hands On!
	12. On Your Own

	Search Glossary Appendix

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Last updated: 22 Jan 2008