Terminal

A terminal is a device attached to a computer which allows a user to interact with the computer by typing information in on a keyboard, and receiving back information which the software on the computer sends to it.

Initially, all terminals were printing terminals, such as Teletypes. Later, video terminals mostly replaced them, since they were faster, and had other advantages (e.g. they didn't use paper, most of which contained output which was not worth retaining).

These terminals were generally connected to the computer via an asynchronous serial line - perhaps remotely, via a modem.

In modern personal computers, the terminal functionality is generally integrated into the computer, using a bit-mapped display for output.