The LINC is built with Digital Equipment Corporation modules - that was how their business started, before they actually built computer themselves - using diode-transistor and diode-capacitor gate logic. Word size was 12 bits, CISC architecture (in contrast to the PDP-8, which is a RISC architecture). Originally the LINC had 1k (yes, thats 1024 words) of core memory, later expanded to 2k.
The LINC is designed for interactive use via Graphical User Interface, with a 256 x 256 CRT display and four `knobs' (the equivalent of a mouse in those days) to enter variable parameters. The Soroban keyboard, for alpha-numeric entry, has keys which lock down when pressed, and pop back up when the computer has read them, thereby solving the problem of type-ahead! The screen editor of LAP-6 (LINC Assembly Program) is integrated with the Assembler and File System. Removable media - two LINCtape drives, of course. The predecessor of DECtape, each spool holds 512 blocks of 256 12-bit words, or 512 bytes - the characters (upper-case, plus various greek and math symbols) fit into 6 bits.
In later years, DEC mounted a LINC and a PDP-8 in the same cabinet and called it a PDP-12, but that's a horse of a different (green) color. Ours is the original blue, and will probably be decommissioned within the month, after 28 years of almost daily service doing what a LINC does best - gathering real-time data, processing and displaying results for the scientist.
Any LINC afficianados out there?
JPEG image, 20kThe Eaton-Peabody Laboratory LINC was finally transferred to the MIT Museum on 15 August 1995. When it left here, it was still in operable condition. Engineering drawings and historically significant correspondence were given over to the MIT Archives.