Concept in Definition ABC

A picture is worth a thousand words, and that is very true in the science of computing, since the data does not mean anything to those who must work with it if it cannot be represented. And, of this, the monitor is responsible, mainly.

It is a peripheral that allows the output of data in graphic form, using a technology similar or identical to that of televisions.

Although today it may seem to us that monitors have always been present and linked to computers, at the beginning of the development of science computing it was not so; The first computers communicated with users by means of a strip of paper that was printed, or the switching on of individual lights.

It was logical that, to improve interactivity, computers used a technology that already existed since the mid-30s of the 20th century (the first television broadcast was that of the Olympic Games Berlin in 1936), but which became popular after the end of World War II: television.

Based on a cathode ray tube (CRT), this technology made it possible to redraw images on the screen with a great speed and ease, in addition to providing computers with greater interactivity and possibilities graphics.

It was not until the 1960s that monitors began to be used in computers, and their "Explosion" as an exit peripheral occurred in the 70s, when it was already established as standard.

However, the first monitors made ex profeso for computer systems only allowed text (text mode) and were monochrome, a situation that lasted well into the 1980s, at least for the vast majority of users.

The technology of green phosphorus also dates from that time, which is not technically different from that of the traditional CRT monitors, but in which a bright green color was used that offered a very contrasting high.

It is a technology whose main advantage is the clarity in the visualization of a single glance but that, in return, made the user more tired when using it. And it is still in use on, for example, the small screens of supermarket cash registers.

From here, not only color monitors arrive, but also a race to achieve higher resolutions and larger viewing area displays reducing hardware bulk used.

If the first monochrome monitors prepared for text only suffered from the inability to address individual pixels, the successive Models already allow this possibility, giving rise to computer-generated graphics that are used in multiple fields, including that of video game.

This also gave rise to a whole terminological jargon with which the different resolutions that were capable of achieving the card combination were defined. graph and monitor: CGA (320x200), VGA (640x480), EGA (640x350), SVGA (800x600), ...

Resolution is the ratio of the pixels (the smallest point of light) into which the screen is divided horizontally, by which it is divided vertically.

The next step was to “flatten” the monitors thanks to TFT technology, which has given us the thinner and flat screens that we have today.

In this way, monitors have also been incorporating other functionalities and, in fact, the fine line that differentiated a television from a computer monitor has ended up disappearing.

Thus, televisions have incorporated video ports typical of computers, being able to act effectively as computer monitors, while computer monitors computer They have adopted speakers, or DTT tuners, which has led them to replace televisions in some homes.

Through history monitors evolve dramatically

At present, these have a high quality and they can even connect to nearby TVs or other screens. In combination with good graphics cards, they are an excellent entertainment device for playing movies and video games, as well as complementing the user experience with the computer.

Nowadays LCD monitors have become widely popular, as an improvement to the CRT technology that we mentioned before. In the case of the former, its thickness allows it to be used in notebooks, they have a better geometry and image resolution. On the other hand, these types of screens do not generate light by themselves, which is why they require an external source.

Also, the full visibility angle is lower. CRT displays have a greater color variety and can reproduce in various resolutions. However, they are usually larger in size and require more space, as well as being affected by other surrounding electric fields.

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