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Jerome H. Saltzer | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1939-10-09)October 9, 1939 (age 86) Nampa, Idaho, United States |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Multics,Project Athena,MIT License |
| Awards | 2010 Computer System Security Award of theNational Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Traffic control in a multiplexed computer system (1966) |
| Doctoral advisor | Fernando J. Corbató |
| Doctoral students | |
| Website | web |
Jerome Howard "Jerry" Saltzer (born October 9, 1939) is an Americancomputer scientist.[2]
Jerry Saltzer received an ScD inElectrical Engineering fromMIT in 1966. His dissertation 'Traffic Control in a Multiplexed System' was advised byFernando J. Corbató.[3] In 1966, he joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.
One of Saltzer's earliest involvements with computers was with MIT'sCompatible Time-Sharing System in the early 1960s. In the later 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the team leaders of theMultics operating system project. Multics, though not particularly commercially successful in itself, has had a major impact on all subsequent operating systems; in particular, it was an inspiration forKen Thompson to developUnix. Saltzer's contributions to Multics included the now-standard kernel stack switching method of process switching, as well as oft-cited work on the security architecture for shared information systems.[4]
Saltzer led the Computer Systems Research group of MIT'sLaboratory for Computer Science. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Computer Systems Research group was one of the key players in the development of theInternet andring network technology forlocal area networks. During this time, Saltzer patented the Proteon ProNetring network. He is the co-author ofThe Protection of Information in Computer Systems.
From 1984 to 1988 Saltzer served as Technical Director of MIT'sProject Athena. "Saltzer
mit.edu" is one of the few Athena usernames with a capital letter, and legend has it that several special case hacks were required to support this functionality. In September 1995 Saltzer retired from his full-time faculty position, but continued writing and teaching part-time at MIT.[2]
Saltzer is known to all (colleagues, students, friends and family) as "Jerry". In 1961 he married Marlys Anne Hughes. They have two children: Rebecca (born 1962) and Sarah (born 1963). He has two grandchildren: Hannah (born 1997), and Caroline (born 1999).[5]
Saltzer is also very interested in 19th century landscape art of the western United States; he has prepared thecatalogue raisonné of the paintings of the painterFrederick Ferdinand Schafer.[6][7][8]
Saltzer has been the programmer, a designer, or the inspiration, for a number of important pieces of systems software, which are either still in use or have descendants still being used today:
As Technical Director of Project Athena, he supported development of theX Window System, anopen-source windowing system, still used and developed onUnix-like systems.
The desktop computer was the IBM Personal Computer attached to one of several local area networks: Ethernet, PRONET, and an RS-232 asynchronous serial line network. The collection of programs is known as PCIP.
My involvement with PC-IP began when I was a freshman at MIT in 1981, and I needed a job to pay my tuition. I had used the ARPNET a little bit, and there was an advertisement for a job with Dave Clark and Jerry Saltzer at the Lab for Computer Science (LCS). I interviewed for the job and got it. They were working on a research project to see if TCP/IP could run on something as small as an IBM PC.... While I was at Epilogue, we created an Internet Toaster for Interop in 1990.
