Gerald J. Popek

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Gerald John “Jerry” Popek (born September 22, 1946 in Passaic , New Jersey , † July 20, 2008 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American computer scientist known for his research in the fields of operating systems and virtualization.

Life

Gerald Popek graduated from Rutherford High School in Rutherford, New Jersey, high school in 1964. He then studied at New York University and graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering. In 1970 he finished another degree at Harvard University with a Master of Science degree in applied mathematics. He also completed a doctorate in applied mathematics at Harvard University and UCLA , which he obtained in 1973 with a PhD. Graduated in Applied Mathematics. He then continued to work at UCLA in the areas of virtualization , network security , operating systems and databases . Eventually he was appointed director of the Center of Experimental Computer Science. Between April 1981 and June 1983 Popek worked in the DARPA steering committee for BSD - Unix , which was founded by Duane Adams from DARPA, to control the system design for the next BSD version, on the basis of which the 4.2BSD operating system was finally implemented. Other notable members of the committee were Bob Fabry, Bill Joy and Sam Leffler from UCB , Alan Nemeth and Rob Gurwitz from BBN , Dennis Ritchie from Bell Labs , Keith Lantz from Stanford University , Rick Rashid from Carnegie Mellon University , Bert Halstead from MIT and Dan Lynch from the Information Sciences Institute (ISI).

In the early 1980s he was also working on LOCUS, a distributed operating system that was an early implementation of the single system image idea. In order to make LOCUS a commercial success, Popek founded the Locus Computing Corporation in 1982. He himself held the role of Chief Technical Officer and CEO . In 1995 Locus was taken over by Platinium Technology Inc. as part of a share swap. Popek assumed the role of CTO for Platinum. In 1999 he left Platinium to take on the position of CTO at CarsDirect.com , which it claims to be the first internet car company. In 2000 he left CarsDirect.com to take on the role of CTO at NetZero. In 2001 Netzero merged with competitor Juno Online Services and renamed United Online Inc., where he assumed the role of Executive Vice President and CTO.

Gerald Popek died on July 20, 2008 at the age of 61 in Los Angeles. In June 2009 he was posthumously awarded the USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award.

Services

Together with Robert P. Goldberg , Popek proposed the virtualization requirements of Popek and Goldberg , which formulate a set of requirements for a processor architecture, the fulfillment of which enables efficient virtualization based on this architecture. In addition, Popek was one of the main drivers for the development of distributed operating systems and the “transparency” concept in this context. In June 2009 he was posthumously awarded the USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award.

Books

  • Gerald J. Popek, The LOCUS Distributed System Architecture. MIT Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0262517195 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Popek's page at the UCLA Laboratory for Advanced Systems Research . Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  2. ↑ 20 Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T Owned to Freely Redistributable - DARPA Support . O'Reilly . Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  3. ↑ Popek, G., B. Walker, J. Chow, D. Edwards, C. Kline, G. Rudisin, G. Thiel: LOCUS a network transparent, high reliability distributed system . In: ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review . 15, No. 5, 1981, p. 169. doi : 10.1145 / 1067627.806605 .
  4. ↑ NetZero, Juno to unite in merger . Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  5. ↑ EXECUTIVE PROFILE Gerald J. Popek Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, United Online Inc. . Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award ("The Flame") - accessed August 25, 2014
  7. ↑ Popek, Gerald J., Robert P. Goldberg: Formal requirements for virtualizable third generation architectures . In: Proceeding SOSP '73 Proceedings of the fourth ACM symposium on Operating system principles . 1973, p. 121. doi : 10.1145 / 800009.808061 .
personal data
SURNAME Popek, Gerald J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Popek, Jerry; Popek, Gerald John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Passaic , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH July 20, 2008
Place of death Los Angeles , California