Laboratory Instrument Computer

Laboratory INstrument Computer

   <computer> (LINC) A computer which was originally designed in
   1962 by {Wesley Clark}, {Charles Molnar}, Severo Ornstein and
   others at the {Lincoln Laboratory Group}, to facilitate
   scientific research.  With its {digital logic} and {stored
   programs}, the LINC is accepted by the {IEEE Computer Society}
   to be the World's first {interactive} {personal computer}.

   The machine was developed to fulfil a need for better
   laboratory tools by doctors and medical researchers.  It would
   supplant the 1958 {Average Response Computer}, and was
   designed for individual use.

   Led by William N. Papian and mainly funded by the {National
   Institute of Health}, Wesley Clark designed the logic while
   Charles Molnar did the engineering.  The first LINC was
   finished in March 1962.

   In January 1963, the project moved to {MIT}, and then to
   {Washington University} (in St. Louis) in 1964.

   The LINC had a simple {operating system}, four "knobs" (which
   was used like a {mouse}), a {Soroban keyboard} (for
   alpha-numeric data entry), two {LINCtape} drives and a small
   {CRT} display.  It originally had one {kilobit} of {core
   memory}, but this was expanded to 2 Kb later.  The computer
   was made out of {Digital Equipment Corporation} (DEC) hardware
   modules.

   Over 24 LINC systems had been built before late 1964 when
   DEC began to sell the LINC commercially.

   After the introduction of the {PDP-8}, {Dick Clayton} at
   DEC produced a rather frightening hybrid of the LINC and
   PDP-8 called a LINC-8.  This really was not a very
   satisfactory machine, but it used the new PDP-8 style DEC
   cards and was cheaper and easier to produce.  It still
   didn't sell that well.

   In the late 1960s, Clayton brought the design to its pinnacle
   with the PDP-12, an amazing tour de force of the LINC concept;
   along with about as seamless a merger as could be done with
   the PDP-8.  This attempted to incorporate {TTL logic} into the
   machine.  The end of the LINC line had been reached.

   Due to the success of the LINC-8, {Spear, Inc.} produced a
   LINC clone (since the design was in the {public domain}).
   The interesting thing about the Spear {micro-LINC 300} was
   that it used {MECL} II logic.  MECL logic was known for its
   blazing speed (at the time!), but the Spear computer ran at
   very modest rates.

   In 1995 the last of the classic LINCs was turned off for
   the final time after 28 years of service.  This LINC had
   been in use in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory of Auditory
   Physiology (EPL) of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear
   Infirmary.

   On 15 August 1995, it was transferred to the MIT {Computer
   Museum} where it was put on display.

   LINC/8, PDP-12
   (http://faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-7.html).

   Lights out for last LINC
   (http://rleweb.mit.edu/publications/currents/6-1linc.HTM).

   ["Computers and Automation", Nov. 1964, page 43].

   (1999-05-20)