What is a dumb terminal?

A dumb terminal is a hardware device comprised only of a monitor and a keyboard (or input interface) with no independent central processing unit (CPU) or internal data storage capabilities. Popular during the mainframe computer era of the mid-20th century, a dumb terminal could not process data locally; instead, it relied entirely on a remote central mainframe computer to perform all calculations, run applications, and render text on the screen. The terminal's sole job was to capture keystrokes, send them to the mainframe, and display the resulting output text sent back down the line. While largely replaced today by personal computers, laptops, and modern thin clients or cloud-connected virtual machines, the concept of the dumb terminal laid the foundational architecture for modern cloud computing and centralized network data processing.