Fernando J. Corbato
| Fernando José Corbató | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 1, 1926 Oakland, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Computer Scientist |
| 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) |
| Doctoral advisor | John C. Slater |
| Doctoral students | Jerome H. Saltzer |
| Known for | Multics |
| Notable awards |
Turing Award (1990) Computer History Museum Fellow (2012) |
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.
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.
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