LINC

The LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer) was an early small computer (considered by many to be the first minicomputer), designed for use in laboratory environments (initially in biomedical research), and a distant descendent of the Whirlwind computer. The goal was to provide a computer for exclusive use by a single user; it is thus considered by many to be an important forerunner to the personal computer.

It provided real-time capabilities, along with analog input, a small video display screen, and a pair of small magnetic tape drives called LINC tapes (the latter being an integral part of the machine, not an optional peripheral). It was a 12-bit computer, built out of DEC System Building Blocks. The initial version had only 1024 words of core memory; it was later expanded to 2048 words.

History

It was designed starting in 1960 by Wesley A. Clark (who conceived of the basic concept of the machine); he had considerable design assistance from Charles Molnar. The prototype first ran in March of 1962; the first batch of machines were completed in a workshop for their eventual users held in the summer of 1963.

The project started at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, then moved to MIT itself in January 1963 (because a switch to funding from NIH didn't interact well with Lincoln Labs' Air Force funding); after a big political fight at MIT over control, the project moved out to Washington University in St. Louis in the summer of 1964.

It was originally named the Linc, from the project's origins, but was re-named to 'LINC'.

It became a product for DEC, which sold both the original, and several descendants: the LINC-8, and later its replacement, the PDP-12.

Spear, Inc made the μ-LINC 1 and micro-LINC 300.

Artronix made the PC-12, a LINC with 4K memory and an "origin register" for address relocation.

Models

Year	Manufacturer	Model	Memory	Instruction cycle time
1963	Lincoln Labs	LINC	1K	8 μs
1965	MIT	LINC	2K	8 μs
1965	Spear	μ-LINC 1	4K	8 μs
1968	Spear	micro-LINC 300	32K	1 μs
1966	DEC	LINC-8	4K	1.5 μs
1969	DEC	PDP-12	4K (expandable to 32K)	1.2 μs
1972	Artronix	PC-1200
1975	Artronix	PC-12/710	8K
1975	Artronix	PC-12/730	16K
1975	Artronix	PC-12/750	32K
1975	Artronix	PC-12/770	48K
1975	Artronix	PC-12/790	64K

Further reading

• Severo M. Ornstein, Computing in the Middle Ages: A View From the Trenches 1955-1983 (AuthorHouse, 2002) - Considerable detail about the development of the LINC
• C. Gordon Bell and John E. McNamara, The PDP-8 and Other 12-Bit Computers, in C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John. E. McNamara, Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design, Digital Press, Bedford, 1978 - The LINC and its descendants

External links

• Wesley A. Clark, The LINC Was Early and Small ACM, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on the history of personal workstations, 1986, pp. 133-155 - lengthy personal memoir; also covers the TX-0
• LINC at Bitsavers:
  • MIT
  • Washington University
    • User's Guide to LINC Variants - covers the Classic LINC, SPear, and LINC-9 models
  • DEC
    • LINC Brochure
  • Micro-LINC-300 - SPear
  • PC-12/7 Interactive Computer System - Artronix
• DigiBarn Stories: The LINC, A History and Restoration (a 45 Year Retrospective)
  • Digibarn Systems: The LINC - Laboratory INstrument Computer The World's First Personal Computer
• Progress Report No. 9, Biomedical Computer Laboratory, Washington University School of Medicine, 1973 - lengthy report coving much beyond the LINC work, including much of the work done with the LINC