Pseudoterminals were present in the DEC PDP-6 Timesharing Monitor at least as early as 1967, and were used to implement batch processing. They are described in the documentation for the succeeding TOPS-10 on the PDP-10.[6] Other DEC operating systems also had PTYs, including RSTS/E for the PDP-11, as did the third-party TENEX operating system for the PDP-10.
Implementations of Unix pseudo terminals date back to the modifications that RAND and BBN made to a 6th Edition in the late 1970s to support remote access over a network.[7] Modern Unix pseudoterminals originated in 1983 during the development of Eighth Edition Unix and were based on a similar feature in TENEX.[8] They were part of the 4.3BSD-Reno, with a rather cumbersome
openpty()interface defined for use.[9]
On Aug 15, 2025, at 3:28 PM, ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com> wrote:so the question of pseudo tty came up today.My memory is that it started with TOPS-10, though I doubt I know enough. Vague memory says there was a PTY: device.Further, I believe pty came in from UCB ca 1977 or so?I'm wondering if people who were Present at the Creation can fill in the gaps.Thanks