| modem A
modem is an external box or internal circuitry that converts computer data
into sound that can be transmitted over phone lines. First used to send
telegrams, early modems alternated between two different tones. This is
called modulation, and the process of modulating (and demodulating at the
receiving end) gave the modem its name. These days modems transmit data
with lots of different tones, signals, and complex mathematical
processing, so modem is a bit of a misnomer. |