MODEM
A modem is a hardware device that allows a computer to send and receive data over a telephone line or a cable or satellite connection. In the case of transmission over an analog telephone line, which was once the most popular way to access the internet, the modem converts data between analog and digital formats in real time for two-way network communication. In the case of the high-speed digital modems popular today, the signal is much simpler and doesn't require the analog-to-digital conversion.
History of Modems
The first devices called modems converted digital data for transmission over analog telephone lines. The speed of these modems was measured in baud (a unit of measurement named after Emile Baudot), although as computer technology developed, these measures were converted into bits per second. The first commercial modems supported a speed of 110 bps and were used by the U.S. Department of Defense, news services, and some large businesses.
Modems gradually became familiar to consumers in the late 1970s through the 1980s as public message boards and news services like CompuServe were built on early internet infrastructure. Then, with the explosion of the World Wide Web in the mid and late 1990s, dial-up modems emerged as the primary form of internet access in many households around the world.
0 Comments