VIDEO COMPUTER TERMINAL WITH DETACHABLE INTELLIGENT KEYBOARD MODULE

摘要

VIDEO COMPUTER TERMINAL WITH DETACHABLEINTELLIGENT KEYBOARD MODULEAbstract of the DisclosureAn interchangeable keyboard application module is con-nected to a video monitor module in a computer terminal toprovide sequences of processor instructions and a keyboardfor performing a plurality of selectable applications. Thevideo monitor module includes a CRT display, a serial I/Ointerface and a processor that processes characters receivedthrough the serial I/O interface for display on the CRTscreen whether or not the application module is connected.The processor in the video monitor module detects the con-nection of the application module, and then selects itsinstructions from a memory in the application module first,to prompt the selection of a mode of operation for the ter-minal, and second, to execute the selected mode of operation.The application module uses a plurality of keyboard overlays,each corresponding to a respective mode of operation. In aspecific embodiment two of the modes of operation are pro-gramming applications related to programmable controllers.