
Fernando Corbató, a Father of Your Computer (and Your Password), Has Died - NaOH
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/science/fernando-corbato-dead.html
======
f2f
I'm a fan of old UNIX papers, i remember his name associated with Multics
mostly. "Introduction and overview of the Multics system", F. J. Corbató,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and V. A. Vyssotsky Bell Telephone
Laboratories.
([https://multicians.org/fjcc1.html](https://multicians.org/fjcc1.html))

seminal in OS development at the time.

if anyone has links to other interesting papers, do share.

~~~
kkylin
Looks like the Wikipedia page on CTSS has a number of links:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-
Sharing_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System)

One should also know about ITS:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatible_Timesharing_Syste...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatible_Timesharing_System)

And of course, before Wikipedia there was the Jargon File:

[http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/c/CTSS.html](http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/c/CTSS.html)
[http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/i/ITS.html](http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/i/ITS.html)

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enriquto
His website:

[http://larch-www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/~corbato](http://larch-
www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/~corbato)

Which contains an html rendering of his turing award lecture:

[http://larch-www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/~corbato/turing91/](http://larch-
www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/~corbato/turing91/)

And his seminal work on the first time-sharing system, from 1962:

[http://larch-www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/~corbato/sjcc62/](http://larch-
www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/~corbato/sjcc62/)

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charlysl
Interesting interview in this documentary, "1963 Timesharing: A Solution to
Computer Bottlenecks":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q07PhW5sCEk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q07PhW5sCEk)

~~~
stelonix
That is one of the most worth to watch videos ever. I also had no idea it was
a "precursor" to UNIX, so it kind of amazed me as if I was understanding time-
sharing for the first time in my life.

I also really like how he's describing what I know as an OS, but before that
term was used. He also mentions magnetic disks and terms like "words" (we use
bytes now), "supervisor" (would be OS) and "alarm clock", which gives me a
feeling of the turning point between huge expensive computers and personal
computers. The work of this man and his team is truly the birth of computers
as we knows them.

RIP

~~~
truantbuick
As far as I can tell, he uses "word" in the same way it's used today.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_(computer_architecture)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_\(computer_architecture\))

But, he does say a "word" is the information of 6 letters or 10 numbers, which
is a bit curious.

My understanding is the most encodings for letters in 1960s were 6 bits, so
that would perhaps imply a 36-bit word for Dr. Corbato's computer. But then,
if you have to fit ten of them into a word, you could only use up to 3-bit
integers, which doesn't sound right.

~~~
kps
Ten decimal digits. 10 < log₁₀(2³⁵) < 11

~~~
truantbuick
Ah, thank you! That explains it.

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ege_erdogan
Even though it covers much more than Corbato and the time-sharing system, The
Dream Machine[0] is a great read if you want to learn more about the history
of the computers and the Internet.

[0]
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412.The_Dream_Machine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412.The_Dream_Machine)

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cpr
Had some interaction with Corby back in the late 70’s. What a gentle, generous
thoughtful man!

Requiescat in pace.

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mac01021
No black bar for this guy?

~~~
charlysl
This man deserves it more than most of those who got one (I don't mean to take
anything away from them, they did deserve one, just that Corbato's
contributions to computing are enormous and more deserving than most; for
instance, would there have been a Linux without his contributions? He led the
Multics project, of which he was possibly the main figure -> Unix -> Linux). I
guess that it comes down to a popularity thing, rather than actual importance.

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xchip
Yet another example that progress and inventons can come from any country (or
immigrants from any country)

~~~
influx
He was born in Oakland.

