TX-2

This article is about the computer. For the Texas district, see Texas's 2nd congressional district. For the successor to the TX1 London taxicab, see TXII.

The MIT Lincoln Laboratory TX-2 computer was the successor to the Lincoln TX-0 and was known for its role in advancing both artificial intelligence and human–computer interaction. Wesley A. Clark was the chief architect of the TX-2.^[1]

TX-2

Circuit module from the TX-2
Developer	MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Product family	TX
Release date	1958 (1958)
Predecessor	TX-0

Specifications

The TX-2 was a transistor-based computer using the then-huge amount of 64K 36-bit words of magnetic-core memory. The TX-2 became operational in 1958.^[2][3] Because of its powerful capabilities, Ivan Sutherland's revolutionary Sketchpad program was developed for and ran on the TX-2.^[4][5] One of its key features was the ability to directly interact with the computer through a graphical display.^[6]

The TX-2 had 32 modes of predication, innovative bitmanipulation instructions ^[7] and is likely one of the very first processors with SIMD within a register, used in Sutherland's Sketchpad:

...the Lincoln Lab’s TX-2 computer offered instructions that operated on the ALU as either one 36-bit operation, two 18-bit operations, or four 9-bit operations... Sketchpad did in fact take advantage of these SIMD instructions, despite TX-2 appearing before invention of the term SIMD.^[8]

The compiler (today we would say assembler) was developed by Lawrence Roberts while he was studying at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.^[9]

Relationship with DEC

Digital Equipment Corporation was a spin-off of the TX-0 and TX-2 projects. The TX-2 Tape System was a block addressable 1/2" tape developed for the TX-2 by Tom Stockebrand which evolved into LINCtape and DECtape.

Role in creating the Internet

Dr. Leonard Kleinrock developed the mathematical theory of packet networks which he successfully simulated on the TX-2 computer at Lincoln Lab.