Meaning – The term monitor, refers to a device that observes and records selected activities within a data processing system for analysis. Possible uses are to indicate a significant departure from the norm or to determine levels of utilization of particular functional units.
It also refers to the function required to initiate the transmission of a token on the ring and to provide soft-error recovery in case of lost tokens, circulating frames, or other difficulties. The capability is present in all ring stations.
The term monitor may also be used to refer to software or hardware that observes, supervises, controls, or verifies operations of a system.
Example of usage – “In the NetView Graphic Monitor Facility, the word monitor refers to the process of opening a view that can receive status changes from Tivoli NetView for OS/390. Problem determination and correction can be performed directly from the view.”
