Nationality American Doctoral students Jerome H. Saltzer Role Computer scientist Doctoral advisor John C. Slater | Fields Computer Scientist Name Fernando Corbato Known for Multics | |
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Born July 1, 1926 (age 97)
Oakland, California ( 1926-07-01 ) Institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alma mater California Institute of Technology (B.S., 1950)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1956) Thesis A calculation of the energy bands of the graphite crystal by means of the tight-binding method (1956) Children David Gish, Carolyn Corbato, Nancy Corbato, Jason Gish Books Advanced computer programming Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1956), California Institute of Technology (1950) Awards Turing Award, W. Wallace McDowell Award | ||
1990 fernando j corbato
Fernando José "Corby" Corbató (born July 1, 1926) is a prominent American computer scientist, notable as a pioneer in the development of time-sharing operating systems.
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Career
Born in Oakland, California, Corbató received a bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1950, and then a PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956. He joined MIT's Computation Center immediately upon graduation, became a professor in 1965, and stayed at MIT until he retired.
The first timesharing system he was associated with was known as the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), an early version of which was demonstrated in 1961. Corbató is credited with the first use of passwords to secure access to files on a large computer system, though he now says that this rudimentary security method has proliferated and become unmanageable.
The experience with developing CTSS led to a second project, Multics, which was adopted by General Electric for its high-end computer systems (later acquired by Honeywell). Multics pioneered many concepts now used in modern operating systems, including a hierarchical file system, ring-oriented security, access control lists, single level store, dynamic linking, and extensive on-line reconfiguration for reliable service. Multics, while not particularly commercially successful in itself, directly inspired Ken Thompson to develop Unix, the direct descendants of which are still in extremely wide use; Unix also served as a direct model for many other subsequent operating system designs.
Awards
Among many awards, Corbató received the Turing Award in 1990, "for his pioneering work in organizing the concepts and leading the development of the general-purpose, large-scale, time-sharing and resource-sharing computer systems".
In 2012, he was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for his pioneering work on timesharing and the Multics operating system".
Legacy
Corbató is sometimes known for "Corbató's Law" which states:
The number of lines of code a programmer can write in a fixed period of time is the same, independent of the language used.Corbató is recognized as helping to create the first computer password.
Personal life
Corbató has a wife, Emily. He has two daughters, Carolyn and Nancy Corbató (by his late wife Isabel), and two step-sons, David and Jason Gish.