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 storedprograms, 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 NationalInstitute 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 corememory, 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 ComputerMuseum where it was put on display.

LINC/8, PDP-12.

Lights out for last LINC.

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

(1999-05-20)