Terminal Emulator: Make your Computer Behave like a Terminal

Posted by adairsawyer on February 8th, 2013

In the earlier days processors and memory were really very expensive and therefore organizations bought a single large computer which was shared amongst all the employees. Employees accessed this computer with the help of thin client software since all the processing was done by the server.  You can say that this was the era of the birth of the terminal emulator.

Though there has been a lot of progress in the computing world in terms of the ability of personal computers to process large amounts of information, there is still this requirement to make normal computer behave like terminals or the mainframe computers of the earlier times. This is easily achieved these days by making use of a terminal emulator that is also known as tty in short.  This feature has great ramifications in IT industry where employees often need to retrieve information or data from the mainframe computer.

A Terminal emulator works across platforms

Once the terminal emulation client is installed, an employee in an organization can work locally on his computer while at the same time is able to open another window withdrawing information from the mainframe computer making his system behave like a terminal. This is possible with the installation of an emulation software in all the computers of the organization.

A terminal emulator can work across platforms and across devices to make it possible for employees in an organization to access information from the mainframe computer whether they use Windows or Android operating systems. It also does not make a difference whether they are using a notebook, a smartphone, or a tablet for the purpose of retrieving information from the legacy servers.

Until very recently, terminal emulation software was not at all fit for the non-technical customers. To use the terminal emulator, the user had to install the emulator software. Moreover different emulators were needed to access different servers. Also, emulator clients are usually memory intensive and this meant that you can't use your PC or device for any other task other than accessing the host servers. The support provided by those emulators was very limited as client programs were a must to be installed. Today companies have launched the best in class terminal emulation solution that removes the restrictions imposed by emulators of the past. We also have the web to host integration where you can connect to a mainframe computer and AS/400 easily with the help of a web browser. Such emulators are also not needed to be installed on local computers.

Comparing this terminal emulation system to the dumb terminal of earlier era would mean doing great injustice to this latest. A terminal emulator can save a lot of time and effort through automation of tasks that are repetitive in nature. Today, the word terminal emulation has become a buzzword in many of the industries where the mainframe is still used. This is a feature that makes life easier for employees as they can get access to programs on the mainframe and help improve their productivity. It requires just the installation of this terminal emulation software in the LAN and all computers in the network start behaving like mainframe computers with the ability to access programs meant for central, powerful computers only.

Learn more about terminal emulation and terminal emulator now by clicking on the links.