The https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc89 mentions a PDP-6 and
PDP-10s which are 36-bit twos complement machines, and a DEC PDP-1 which
was an 18-bit one's complement machine. The "graphics-oriented" PDP-1
probably had the well-known Type 30 display which used a large round
radar-type CRT thanks to the Project SAGE tradition, but there were a
couple of other graphics display options for the PDP-1.
https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/graphics/
- Aron
On 8/15/25 23:35, Clem Cole wrote:
> Watch the dates - that's not UNIX. In 1973, Version 4 Unix is first
> released outside of BTL, so the Harvard system being talked about in
> RFC 89 is probably an 18 bit ??PDP6 maybe??.
>
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 8:24 PM Bakul Shah via TUHS wrote:
>
> From RFC 89 (dated 19 January 1971) titled "Some historic moments
> in networking":
>
> Second, the Harvard system has temporarily implemented this remote
> network console interface feature using a DEC style pseudo-teletype
> (PTY).
>
> From RFC 46 (dated April 1970) titled "'ARPA Network Protocol Notes":
>
> 3. A standard way for a newly created process to initiate pseudo-
> typewriter communication with the foreign process which
> requested
> its creation.
>
>
>> On Aug 15, 2025, at 6:49 PM, ron minnich wrote:
>>
>> was there ever a telnet or other remote access program that
>> predated ptys on Unix? Was telnet the driving force for ptys? Did
>> the folks implementing Unix networking bring in ptys before, or
>> as part of, or after networking, i.e. did folks building
>> networking for Unix realize they needed ptys once they started
>> working on telnet, or did they plan for ptys from the get go? I
>> was an observer for some of this stuff, but as a 20-year-old at
>> UDEL I was also quite out of the loop.
>>
>> I also realize there were multiple Unix networking efforts, so
>> this question is somewhat simplistic.
>>
>> I'm assuming rsh came a bit later.
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM Tom Lyon wrote:
>>
>> Yeah, I was thinking that 4.1c BSD must've had them for
>> rlogin and telnet.
>>
>> Which got me looking for Fabry and Bill Joy's design/planning
>> documents for 4.2, which are not in the TUHS archives.
>> Anyone got them??
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM Warner Losh
>> wrote:
>>
>> At the very least, 4.2BSD had them for telnet and rlogin.
>> They were static, though. You had to MAKEDEV enough units.
>>
>> Warner
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025, 5:00 PM ron minnich
>> wrote:
>>
>> That was my guess. I figured the people who did the
>> work are on this list, and primary sources rule.
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM Ron Natalie
>> wrote:
>>
>> I think that wikipedia history is somewhat
>> garbled when it comes to the UNIX implementations.
>>
>>
>