Fjärrvärddatorn

Fjärrvärddatorn, often translated as "remote host" or "terminal computer," refers to a computing device that accesses and processes data and applications from a more powerful, central server. This model of computing was particularly prevalent in the early days of computing before widespread personal computers became common. Users would connect to a large, expensive mainframe or minicomputer through a "dumb terminal." These terminals typically had a screen and keyboard but lacked significant processing power or local storage, relying almost entirely on the distant server for their functionality. All computations, data storage, and software execution happened on the central machine. The term emphasizes the client-server relationship where the terminal is a passive interface to the resources of the remote host. The advent of personal computers and networked computing, where processing is distributed across multiple devices, has largely superseded the traditional fjärrvärddator model for general-purpose computing. However, the concept persists in areas like cloud computing and thin clients, where devices still depend on remote servers for their primary operations.