Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Laboratory INstrument 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://www.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)