Each Terminal instance creates two StreamTerm.OutputMonitor threads to read underlying process' output/error streams. Since user usually has n > 1 terminals to work with (most time I have 3-5 opened) 2*n threads are created. Each thread blocks when new data is available until EDT is able to handle this event.

OutputMonitor::run()
...
SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(tramp);


There should be a better way to handle n terminals (without creating too much threads). Maybe it worths looking to java.nio?