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Mary Allen Wilkes received her Bachelors Degree in Philosophy from Wellesley College in 1959. This did not stop her from excelling in the field of computer science. From 1959 to 1963 she worked in the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (for which her minicomputer the LINC is named). It is here that she simulated the LINC, which would soon become the first minicomputer, a pre-cursor to our modern day home computers.
After this simulation, Wilkes went on to design the console, as well as to conceptualize the first ever operating system for her computer to run on. This she called the LAP (The Line Assembly Program), and she continued to design and program operating systems for the LINC up until the LAP6. It is to Wilkes that we owe our thanks for our modern operating systems, as she introduced the world to this new concept, as well as authoring a detailed handbook on the use of the LAP6, and co-authoring "Programming with the LINC", a handbook on the programming of the computer itself.
Mary Allen Wilkes and the LINC
The First Home Computer
A LINC system in the home of programmer Mary Allen Wilkes in 1965. DigiBarn. CNet.
"My father, who was a clergyman, thought this was fabulous. He loved having the LINC in the livingroom." - Mary Allen Wilkes
Mary Allen Wilkes lived with her parents in the early 1960s. During this time, she had been working at MIT Lincoln Labs, but was planning for a large change. She would be moving to St. Louis to work in the Computer Systems Laboratories at Washington University. Still contemplating the move, Wilkes had been working on the designs for the LINC as well as its operating systems in her own home, and in 1965, she finally built the machine she had so well conceptualized.
The LINC can be viewed at the Digibarn Computer Museum in Northern California, where they have been pursuing projects and partnerships to restore significant computer and software systems to "fill the gaps" in the history of the development of personal and interactive computing. At the 2007 Vintage Computer Festival, Digibarn hosted a special event called "The LINC: A Paradigm Shift", which featured a 45 year perspective of the LINC. Their goal was to restore the LINC and it's creators to their rightful place in history as the world's first personal computer, as the rush of technological advance in the 70's and 80's had left it largely obsolete and forgotten.
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