Editing LINC (section)

{{Short description|Computer made at MIT in 1962}}
{{About|the minicomputer|the programming language|LINC 4GL|other uses|Linc (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox information appliance
| name         = LINC
| title        =
| aka          =
| logo         =
| image        = Mary Allen Wilkes - LINC at Home - 1965.jpg
| image_size   = 250px
| caption      = LINC home computer with its software designer, [[Mary Allen Wilkes]], 1965
| developer    = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]'s [[Lincoln Laboratory]]
| manufacturer = [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] and Spear Inc.
| family       =
| type         = [[Minicomputer]]
| generation   =
| releasedate  = {{Start date and age|1962|03}}
| lifespan     =
| price        = {{USD|43,600|1962|round=-3}}
| discontinued =
| unitssold    = 21 (by DEC)
| unitsshipped = 50
| media        =
| os           =
| power        =
| soc          =
| cpu          =
| memory       =
| storage      =
| memory card  =
| display      = 2 oscilloscope displays
| graphics     =
| sound        =
| input        = Knobs, keyboard
| controllers  =
| camera       =
| touchpad     =
| connectivity =
| platform     = DEC 12-bit
| service      =
| dimensions   =
| weight       =
| topgame      =
| compatibility=
| predecessor  =
| successor    = [[PDP-5]], [[LINC-8]], [[PDP-12]]
| related      =
| website      =
}}
[[File:LINC Computer (5900038265).jpg|thumb|LINC computer at the [[Computer History Museum]]]]

The '''LINC''' ('''Laboratory INstrument Computer''') is a [[12-bit]],<ref name=NIH>{{cite web |title=Laboratory Instrument Computer (LINC) |work=Office of NIH History (history.noh.org)
|url=https://history.nih.gov/display/history/Linc+06}}</ref> 2048-word [[transistorized computer]]. The LINC is considered by some<ref>For example see William H. Calvin's letter ''The Missing LINC'', ''BYTE'' magazine April 1982 page 20</ref> to be the first [[minicomputer]] and a forerunner to the [[personal computer]]. Originally named the Linc, suggesting the project's origins at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]'s [[Lincoln Laboratory]], it was renamed LINC after the project moved from the Lincoln Laboratory.<ref name="ClarkTLWEAS1986">{{cite conference|url=https://www.digibarn.com/stories/linc/documents/LINC-Personal-Workstation/LINC-Personal-Workstation.pdf|first=Wesley A. |last=Clark |title=The LINC was early and small|conference=ACM Conference on The history of personal workstations|location=Palo Alto, California, United States|publisher=ACM|year=1986|pages=133–155}}</ref> 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]]).<ref name=ClarkTLWEAS1986/> The LINC sold for more than $40,000 at the time. A typical configuration included an enclosed 6'X20" [[19-inch rack|rack]]; four boxes holding (1) two tape drives, (2) display scope and input knobs, (3) control console and (4) data terminal interface; and a keyboard.

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 A. Clark|Wesley Clark]] at [[Lincoln Laboratory]], Massachusetts,<ref>presentations at The Computer Museum, Marlborough, in the hands of its successor, The Computer History Museum</ref> for [[National Institutes of Health|NIH]] researchers.<ref name="november">{{cite book |last=November |first=Joseph |title=Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States |chapter = The LINC Revolution: The Forgotten Biomedical Origins of Personal Computing |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1421404684}}</ref> The LINC's design was in the public domain, perhaps making it unique in the history of computers. A dozen LINC computers were assembled by their eventual biomedical researcher owners in a 1963 summer workshop at MIT.<ref name="november" /> [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (starting in 1964) and, later, Spear Inc. of Waltham,  Massachusetts,<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1093/clinchem/19.10.1114 | title=Computer-Controlled Instrument System for Sequential Clinical Chemical Testing. I. Instrumentation and System Features | year=1973 | last1=Schirmer | first1=James A. | last2=Cembrowski | first2=George S. | last3=Carey | first3=R Neill | last4=Toren | first4=E Clifford | journal=Clinical Chemistry | volume=19 | issue=10 | pages=1114–1121 | pmid=4741949 | doi-access=free }}</ref> manufactured them commercially.

DEC's pioneer [[Gordon Bell|C. Gordon Bell]]<ref name=BELL>C. Gordon Bell writing in [https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/Bell-ComputerEngineering.pdf ''Computer Engineering a DEC View of Hardware Systems Designs''] (c) Copyright originally held by Digital Press, out of print but available at Bell's web sites, pp 176–177</ref> states that the LINC project began in 1961, with first delivery in March 1962, and the machine was not formally withdrawn until December 1969. A total of 50 were built (all using DEC System Module Blocks and cabinets), most at Lincoln Labs, housing the desktop instruments in four wooden racks. The first LINC included two oscilloscope displays. Twenty-one were sold by DEC at $43,600 ({{Inflation|US|43,600|1962|fmt=eq|r=-3}}), delivered in the Production Model design. In these, the tall cabinet sitting behind a white [[Formica (plastic)|Formica]]-covered table held two somewhat smaller metal boxes holding the same instrumentation, a [[Tektronix]] display [[oscilloscope]] over the "front panel" on the user's left, a bay for interfaces over two LINC-Tape drives on the user's right, and a chunky keyboard between them. The standard program development software (an assembler/editor) was designed by [[Mary Allen Wilkes]]; the last version was named LAP6 (LINC Assembly Program 6).