Early Chinese computers did not operate on a direct-line sequence of input-process output, but rather involved a transfer stage which hampered the speed of the final output. Previously, one page of input information (Chinese) would take 4.8 seconds before it was processed and lit up on the monitor screen.
因此，過去中文電腦，都是把中文當「圖形」處理，顯示時是一點一點地打出來，好比畫圖時一筆一畫地「描」（英文則是字母直接儲存與輸出），所以速度很慢，在螢幕上顯示一頁資料需 4.8 秒，使用者往往要花很多時間在等待顯示上。