DIGITAL LINC-8

The LINC-8 (aka PDP-8/LINC) computer dates from September 1966. Designed as a laboratory computer, it is controlled by separate LINC & pdp8 processing units, it’s memory is the same as the pdp8, 4K. There were only approximately 145 of these units ever made, this makes it very difficult for us to find the spare parts we need. The LINC-8 is about 98% complete.

According to “DEC 1957 to the Present” publication, 134 machines had been installed as of 1st January 1977. The same publication states that 27,550 PDP-8(A, E, F, M) machines had been installed since April 1971.

The LINC-8 has two seperate CPU clusters. One using LINC architecture, a 1’s-compliment system, and the other using pdp8 architecture, a 2’s-compliment system. The computer could be switched from one CPU to another according to the program being run. This allowed a single (expensive) computer to run both older LINC programs, and be up to date enough to run newer pdp8 programs.


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