Lincoln TX-2 Group Resource Page

Created: April 13, 2005

Updated: Nov. 2nd 2022

One of the most influential groups in shaping interactive computing as we know it was based at MIT's Lincoln Lab between about 1953 and 1969. The focal point of the group was the TX-2 computer (and its predecessor, the TX-0), designed by Wesley Clark.

As a direct beneficiary of this work (Ron Baecker who did his PhD there was one of my main mentors during my graduate student days), I have always held it in high esteem. I have also always felt that it has not gotten the attention that it deserved. This came to a head when I had the privilege to meet and work with Bert Sutherland in 2001. I knew of Bert, but we had never met, and I had never seen the film of the graphical programming system that he had done for his 1966 PhD thesis. Exposure to it spurred me into action, with the result that at the 2005 SIGCHI conference, I organized a panel which highlighted the work of the group, and its relevance to computing and research today.

My purpose with this web page is to provide a portal to the archival relating to the work of this group, including video demos, links to articles and theses, and a video and article documenting the SIGCHI panel the I organized.

My hope is to augment this material in the future with additional material, such as interviews with some of the key players in the lab - including some who were unable to attend the panel. All of this takes time, so this page is a work-in-progress. So return from time to time in order to check what is new.

In the meantime, please cut me some slack about bad web design, etc. Of course, in the spirit of open source, if you want to redesign it and send me another version, that would be more than welcome. For the time being, I hope that what I have gotten up is of interest and value. And, of course, I welcome feedback, suggestions, etc., and will do my best to respond promptly.

Enjoy.

Besides myself as moderator, the panel consisted of Wesley Clark, Ivan Sutherland, Bert Sutherland, Fontaine Richardson, Ron Baecker and Austin Henderson.

A video of the panel, including slides and the film clips shown can be viewed on line here:

http://epresence.kmdi.utoronto.ca/1/watch/197.aspx (NOTE: this link is dead. I am doing my best to retrieve the bits and get them placed in a place where they will not be lost. The video is too important to be lost. Fingers crossed.)

An article on the Lincoln Lab work was also prepared for the conference proceedings, and is available here:

Buxton, William (2005). Interaction at Lincoln Laboratory in the 1960's: Looking Forward – Looking Back . Panel Introduction. Proceedings of the 2005 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI'05 , April 3-7, 2005, 1163-1167.

It provides an overview of the work of the Lab as a whole, as well as that of the panel participants. Of particular value, I hope, is the bibliography/references section. Much of the published work is hard to find, and a lot of the citations that I found during my research (especially those on the Internet) were simplywrong, or right, but with mistakes in them. Hopefully it will save some time for those interested in going deeper into the topic.

2005 SIGCHI Panel, April 6, 2005, Portland Oregon. Seated, (L-R): Fontaine Richardson, Bert Sutherland, Wesley Clark, Ivan Sutherland. Standing: Ron Baecker, Bill Buxton, Austin Henderson. (Photo: Ilona Posner. Click on image for larger view.)

There was a panel at at SIGGRAPH in 1989 which was retrospective of early work in computer graphics, including Lincoln Lab. It is documented in the following two articles. What is nice about this material is that it covers some work that precedes that covered in the SIGCHI panel, and is therefore complementary to it.

Hurst, J., Mahoney, M.S., Taylor, N.H., Ross, D.T. & Fano, R.M. (1989). Retrospectives I: The Early Years in Computer Graphics at MIT, Lincoln Lab, and Harvarda. ACM SIGGRAPH'89 Panel Proceedings, 19-38.
Hurst, J., Mahoney, M.S., Gilmore, J.T., Roberts, L.G. & Forrest, R. (1989). Retrospectives II: The Early Years in Computer Graphics at MIT, Lincoln Lab, and Harvard. ACM SIGGRAPH'89 Panel Proceedings, 39-73.

Many of the PhD theses and papers reporting on the work at Lincoln Lab are on-line. I will include additional references as they surface, and welcome any additional suggestions. However, lest the unsuspecting student believe that everything that is relevant is available on-line, be warned: it is not. Get thee to a library and spend a few days with the old AFIPS Spring and Fall Joint Computer Conference Proceedings and be humbled!

Baecker, Ronald M. (1969). Interactive Computer-Mediated Animation. PhD Thesis, MIT.
Best, Richard L. (1957). Memory Units in the Lincoln TX-2. Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference (WJCC), 160-167.
Clark, Wes (1957). The Lincoln TX-2 Computer Development. Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference (WJCC), 143-145.
Clark, Wes (1981). Lecture on the LINC Computer.
Computer Museum (1984). The TX-0: Its Past and Present. Computer Museum Reports, , Spring 1984, Volume 8.
Forgie, James W. (1957). The Lincoln TX-2 Input-Output Systema. Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference (WJCC), 1156-150.
Frankovich, John M & Peterson, H. Philip (1957). A Functional Description of the Lincoln TX-2 Computer. Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference (WJCC), 146-155.
Frenkel, Karen A. (1989). An Interview With Ivan Sutherland. Communications of the ACM. 32(6), 711-718.
Gilmore, John T. (1958). TX-0 Direct Input Utility System. Memorandum 6M-5097-1, Division 6 - Lincoln Laboratory.
Gilmore, John T. & Peterson, H.P. (1958). A Functional Description of the TX-0 Computer. Memorandum 6M-4789-1, Division 6 - Lincoln Laboratory.
Olsen, Kenneth H. (1957). Transistor Circuitry in the Lincoln TX-2, Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference (WJCC), 167-171.
Sutherland, I. (1963). Sketchpad: A Man-Machined Graphical Communication System . PhD Thesis, MIT.
Sutherland, I. (1963). SKETCHPAD: A Man Machine Graphical Communication System, Proceedings of the AFIPS Spring Joint Computer Conference , 329-346.
Sutherland, I. (1982/1996). TTechnology and Courage. Sunlabs.
Sutherland, William Robert (Bert) (1966). The On-Line Graphical Specification of Computer Procedures, Ph.D. Dissertation Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Vanderburgh, Alexander. (1963). A Brief Description of the TX-2 Computer. Lexington Massachusetts: MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Vanderburgh, Alexander. (Ed.)(1961). TX-2 Users Handbook. Lincoln Manual No. 45. Lexington Massachusetts: MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

I am actively adding videos to this list. These are what are currently available are listed below. Please let me know of omissions.:

Applicon (circa 1970). An interactive trainable computer aided circuit design system using hand-drawn shapes to enter data and commands. Applicon. 16 mm film. 2:25 min excerpt.
Baecker, Ron.M., Smith, Lynn & Martin, Eric (1970). GENESYS: An Interactive Computer-Mediated Animation System. 16 mm film. 15:42 min. Cambridge: MIT Lincoln Lab.
Lincoln Laboratory (circa 1965). Specifying circuits using the Rand Tablet and hand-drawn marks. 16 mm silent film. 1:18 excerpt.
Sutherland, Ivan E. (1963). Sketchpad. 16 mm film. 16:51 min. Cambridge: MIT Lincoln Lab.
Sutherland, William Robert "Bert" (1966). Programming with On-Line Graphics. 16 mm film. 18:04 min. Cambridge: MIT Lincoln Lab.

Suggestions for and contributions to this list are welcomed.

Thanks to Al Kossow for help with this section.

The MIT page on history of Lincoln Laboratory.

http://https://www.ll.mit.edu/about/history

A brief general history of Lincoln Laboratory. While not much about the TX-2 group, it does provide overall context that is not in either of the above panel materials.