Laboratory INstrument Computer
Laboratory INstrument Computer
(computer)The machine was developed to fulfil a need for betterlaboratory tools by doctors and medical researchers. It wouldsupplant the 1958 Average Response Computer, and wasdesigned for individual use.
Led by William N. Papian and mainly funded by the National Institute of Health, Wesley Clark designed the logic whileCharles Molnar did the engineering. The first LINC wasfinished in March 1962.
In January 1963, the project moved to MIT, and then toWashington University (in St. Louis) in 1964.
The LINC had a simple operating system, four "knobs" (whichwas used like a mouse), a Soroban keyboard (foralpha-numeric data entry), two LINCtape drives and a smallCRT display. It originally had one kilobit of core memory, but this was expanded to 2 Kb later. The computerwas made out of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) hardwaremodules.
Over 24 LINC systems had been built before late 1964 whenDEC began to sell the LINC commercially.
After the introduction of the PDP-8, Dick Clayton atDEC produced a rather frightening hybrid of the LINC andPDP-8 called a LINC-8. This really was not a verysatisfactory machine, but it used the new PDP-8 style DECcards and was cheaper and easier to produce. It stilldidn't sell that well.
In the late 1960s, Clayton brought the design to its pinnaclewith the PDP-12, an amazing tour de force of the LINC concept;along with about as seamless a merger as could be done withthe PDP-8. This attempted to incorporate TTL logic into themachine. The end of the LINC line had been reached.
Due to the success of the LINC-8, Spear, Inc. produced aLINC clone (since the design was in the public domain).The interesting thing about the Spear micro-LINC 300 wasthat it used MECL II logic. MECL logic was known for itsblazing speed (at the time!), but the Spear computer ran atvery modest rates.
In 1995 the last of the classic LINCs was turned off forthe final time after 28 years of service. This LINC hadbeen in use in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory of AuditoryPhysiology (EPL) of the Massachusetts Eye and EarInfirmary.
On 15 August 1995, it was transferred to the MIT Computer Museum where it was put on display.
LINC/8, PDP-12.
Lights out for last LINC.
["Computers and Automation", Nov. 1964, page 43].