Corbató was born on July 1, 1926 in Oakland, California, to Hermenegildo Corbató, a Spanish literature professor from Villarreal, Spain, and Charlotte Corbató. In 1930 the Corbató family moved to Los Angeles for Hermenegildo's job at UCLA. In 1943, Corbató enrolled at UCLA, but due to World War II he was recruited by the Navy during his first year. During the war, Corbató "debug an incredible array of equipment", inspiring his future career. Corbató left the Navy in 1946, enrolled at the California Institute of Technology, and received a bachelor's degree in physics in 1950. He then earned 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 time-sharing system he was associated with was known as the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System, 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. 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: Corbató is recognized as helping to create the first computer password.
Corbató married programmer Isabel Blandford in 1962; she died in 1973. Corbató had a second wife, Emily ; two daughters, Carolyn Corbató Stone and Nancy Corbató, by his late wife Isabel; two step-sons, David Gish and Jason Gish; a brother, Charles; and five grandchildren. Corbató died on July 12, 2019 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, at the age of 93 due to complications from diabetes.
Publications
F. J. Corbató, M. M. Daggett, R. C. Daley, ' is a good description of CTSS
F. J. Corbató, '
F. J. Corbató, V. A. Vyssotsky, is a good introduction to Multics
F. J. Corbató,
F. J. Corbató, C. T. Clingen, J. H. Saltzer, is an excellent review, after a considerable period of use and improvement
F. J. Corbató, C. T. Clingen, ' is a fascinating look at what it was like to manage such a large software project
F. J. Corbató, '
F. J. Corbató, . Included in a Festschrift published in honor of Prof. P.M. Morse. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1969.
