laboratory instrument computer

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laboratory instrument computer - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  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)