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LMI Lambda Dead

LMI Lambda
KindMachine
Introduced1984
Discontinued1987
StatusDead
ManufacturerLisp Machines Inc.
ClassWorkstation
PlatformLisp machine
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

Richard Greenblatt's MIT-licensed Lisp machine — the other half of the Lisp machine schism, built by the AI Lab hackers who didn't join Symbolics.

Created by Lisp Machines, Inc.

LMI's Lambda (1984) was Greenblatt's hacker-funded Lisp machine — MIT-licensed ZetaLisp software on a NuBus-based design, expandable to four processors.

TI licensed it for the Explorer; LMI sold to universities and AI labs until 1987. The schism (Symbolics' VC model vs LMI's hacker co-op) split the AI Lab and, Stallman argued, ended its golden age.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/lmi/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machine