Fernando José "Corby" Corbató was born on July 1, 1926, and passed away on July 12, 2019. He was an American scientist who worked with computers. He is noted for helping create time-sharing operating systems, which allow multiple users to share a computer's resources. In 1990, he received the ACM Turing Award, a prestigious honor in the field of computer science.

Career

Corbató was born on July 1, 1926, in Oakland, California, to Hermenegildo Corbató, a Spanish literature professor from Villarreal, Spain, and Charlotte (Jensen) Corbató, a Danish American. In 1930, the Corbató family moved to Los Angeles because Hermenegildo had a job at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In 1943, Corbató began studying at UCLA, but because of World War II, he was recruited by the Navy during his first year. During the war, Corbató fixed many types of equipment, which influenced his future career.

Corbató left the Navy in 1946 and enrolled at the California Institute of Technology, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1950. He later received a PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956. After graduating, he joined MIT’s Computation Center, became a professor in 1965, and remained at MIT until he retired.

The first time-sharing system Corbató worked on was called the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS). An early version of CTSS was shown in 1961. Corbató is known for creating the first use of passwords to protect files on a large computer system, though he later said this basic method became too difficult to manage.

Developing CTSS led to another project called Multics, which was used by General Electric for its advanced computers (later bought by Honeywell). Multics introduced many ideas now used in modern operating systems, such as a structured file system, security based on levels, access control lists, a single memory space, dynamic linking, and the ability to reconfigure systems online for reliability. Although Multics was not a commercial success, it directly inspired Ken Thompson to create Unix. Unix is still widely used today and served as a model for many other operating systems.

Awards

In 1990, Corbató was awarded the Turing Award for his early work in creating the ideas behind large, general-use computer systems that allow many users to share time and resources. In 2012, he was honored as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for his important contributions to time-sharing systems and the development of the Multics operating system.

Legacy

Corbató is sometimes called "Corbató's Law," which states:

He helped create the first computer password.

Personal life and death

Corbató married programmer Isabel Blandford in 1962. She died in 1973.

He later married Emily (born Gluck). He had two daughters, Carolyn Corbató Stone and Nancy Corbató, from his first wife, Isabel. He also had two stepsons, David Gish and Jason Gish. Corbató had a brother named Charles and five grandchildren.

He lived on Temple Street in West Newton, Massachusetts. Corbató died on July 12, 2019, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was 93 years old and passed away because of complications from diabetes.

Publications

• F. J. Corbató, M. M. Daggett, R. C. Daley, "An Experimental Time-Sharing System" (IFIPS 1962) describes the CTSS system.
• F. J. Corbató (editor), The Compatible Time-Sharing System: A Programmer's Guide (M.I.T. Press, 1963) provides information for programmers about the CTSS system.
• F. J. Corbató, V. A. Vyssotsky, "Introduction and Overview of the Multics System" (AFIPS 1965) introduces the Multics system.
• Corbató, F. J. (May 6, 1969). "PL/I As a Tool for System Programming." Datamation, pp. 68–76. ISSN 0011-6963. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
• F. J. Corbató, C. T. Clingen, J. H. Saltzer, Multics — The First Seven Years (AFIPS, 1972) offers a detailed review of the Multics system after many years of use and improvements.
• F. J. Corbató, C. T. Clingen, "A Managerial View of the Multics System Development" ("Conference on Research Directions in Software Technology," Providence, Rhode Island, 1977) discusses the challenges of managing a large software project like Multics.
• F. J. Corbató, "On Building Systems That Will Fail" (Turing Award Lecture, 1991) discusses how to create systems that may experience failures.
• F. J. Corbató, "A paging experiment with the Multics system." Included in a Festschrift published in honor of Prof. P.M. Morse. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1969.