LINC

The LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer) is a 12-bit, 2048-word computer. The LINC is considered the first minicomputer and a forerunner to the personal computer. Originally named the "Linc", suggesting the project's origins at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, it was renamed LINC after the project moved from the Lincoln Laboratory. The LINC was designed by Wesley A. Clark and Charles Molnar.

The LINC and other "MIT Group" machines were designed at MIT and eventually built by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Spear Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts (later a division of Becton, Dickinson and Company). The LINC sold for more than $40,000 at the time. A typical configuration included an enclosed 6'X20" rack, four boxes holding tape drives, a small display, a control panel, and a keyboard.

Although the LINC's instruction set was small, it was larger than the tiny PDP-8 instruction set.

The LINC interfaced well with laboratory experiments. Analog inputs and outputs were part of the basic design. It was designed in 1962 by Charles Molnar and Wesley Clark at Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts, for NIH researchers. The LINC's design was literally in the public domain, perhaps making it unique in the history of computers. The number of LINCs and who built them is a minor subject of debate in the 12-bit-word community. One account states that a dozen LINC computers were assembled by their eventual biologist users in a 1963 summer workshop at MIT.Digital Equipment Corporation (starting in 1964) and Spear Inc. of Waltham, MA. manufactured them commercially.

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