Gerald J. Popek

Gerald John "Jerry" Popek (September 22, 1946 – July 20, 2008) was an American computer scientist, known for his research on operating systems and virtualization.

Gerald J. Popek
BornSeptember 22, 1946
Passaic, New Jersey
DiedJuly 20, 2008(2008-07-20) (aged 61)
Los Angeles, California
Alma materNew York University
Harvard University
Known forPopek and Goldberg virtualization requirements
Scientific career
FieldsComputer Scientist
InstitutionsUCLA
Locus Computing Corporation
United Online

With Robert P. Goldberg he proposed the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements,[1] a set of conditions necessary for a computer architecture to support system virtualization.

Academia

Born in Passaic, New Jersey[2] Popek graduated from Rutherford High School in Rutherford, New Jersey in 1964, where he was the class valedictorian. He graduated from New York University in 1968 with a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering.[3] In 1970 he completed an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. In 1973 he completed a Ph.D, also in Applied Mathematics, at Harvard and moved to UCLA. At UCLA he worked on virtualisation, network security, reliable operating systems and Databases. He became Director of the Center for Experimental Computer Science.

Around 1980 he worked on the LOCUS distributed operating system,[4] an early implementation of the single-system image idea.

Between April 1981 and June 1983 Popek served on the DARPA "steering committee" for BSD UNIX formed by Duane Adams of DARPA to guide the design work leading to 4.2BSD. Other 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, Rick Rashid from Carnegie-Mellon, Bert Halstead from MIT and Dan Lynch from ISI.[5]

Commercial

In order to pursue the commercial opportunities of LOCUS he formed the Locus Computing Corporation in 1982, taking on the roles of Chief technical officer and Chairman.[6] In 1995 Locus was acquired by Platinum Technology Inc. in a share swap.[7] Dr Popek took on the role of CTO of Platinum. In 1999 he left Platinum to become CTO of CarsDirect.com, "the first Internet car company"[8] In 2000 he left CarsDirect.com to join NetZero also as CTO[9] In 2001 NetZero merged with its competitor Juno to form United Online Inc.[10] and Dr Popek became Executive Vice President and CTO of the new company.[11]

Awards

In June 2009 he was posthumously awarded the 2009 USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award.[12]

References
  1. Popek, Gerald J.; Goldberg, Robert P. (1973). "Formal requirements for virtualizable third generation architectures". Proceedings of the fourth symposium on Operating system principles - SOSP '73. p. 121. doi:10.1145/800009.808061. S2CID 12680060.
  2. The UCLA Computer Science Department Quarterly, University of California, Los Angeles, Fall 1987 / Winter 1988, Vol. 16 No. 1. Accessed October 29, 2017. "Dr. Popek was born in Passaic, New Jersey and received the B.S. in Nuclear Engineering with honors from New York University in 1968."
  3. "Popek's page at the UCLA Laboratory for Advanced Systems Research". Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  4. Popek, G.; Walker, B.; Chow, J.; Edwards, D.; Kline, C.; Rudisin, G.; Thiel, G. (1981). "LOCUS a network transparent, high reliability distributed system". ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review. 15 (5): 169. doi:10.1145/1067627.806605.
  5. "20 Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable - DARPA Support". O'Reilly. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  6. "Locus Computing Corp. (company profile)". EDN. 1989. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  7. "PLATINUM technology And Locus Computing Finalize Acquisition; Locus Computing officially becomes a PLATINUM technology subsidiary". Business Wire. 1995-08-17.
  8. "CarsDirect.com Names Internet Pioneer New Chief Technology Officer; Gerald Popek Joins from Platinum Technology to Lead Technology Team at First Internet Car Company". Business Wire. 1999. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  9. "NetZero Names Internet Pioneer Gerald Popek New Chief Technology Officer; Former CarsDirect.com Executive To Lead Technology Team for Leading Free ISP". Business Wire. 2000-10-23. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  10. "NetZero, Juno to unite in merger". Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  11. "EXECUTIVE PROFILE Gerald J. Popek Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, United Online Inc".
  12. "Flame Award". usenix.org. 6 December 2011. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
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