Smart terminal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Thin client. (Discuss)

In computing, a smart terminal is a computer terminal that has enough computing capability to render graphics or to offload some processing from the host computer, but falls short of being an independent computing platform.

Examples of smart terminals include X terminals, the AT&T 5620 Blit terminal and the failed Microsoft Smart Display. The term is now commonly used for information kiosks for public places.

The term "smart terminal" originally meant a text terminal that could move the cursor upward (not just down, like a glass TTY or dumb terminal) — although these days such devices are regarded as dumb terminals. Intelligent terminal was used to denote terminals containing entire separate processors, such as X terminals, although this usage is obsolete.