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Andrew Tanenbaum Honored with ACM Software System Award
Posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Jun 24, 2024,
updated Jul 15, 2024
Quoting: Andrew Tanenbaum Honored with ACM Software System Award —
Only a few names truly stand out in the history of operating systems for their significant contributions and global influence on what we use today as modern OSes. Andrew Tanenbaum is one of these notable figures, holding a prestigious place in computer history. Here’s why.
A prominent computer scientist and professor emeritus at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Tanenbaum authored the widely used textbook “Operating Systems: Design and Implementation.” In 1987, he developed MINIX, a compact, microkernel-based UNIX-like operating system designed to facilitate the teaching of operating systems to university students.
Interestingly, MINIX was initially intended as an educational tool to accompany his textbook, providing a practical example of the concepts discussed within.
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Andrew S Tanenbaum
In addition to its impact on the teaching of operating systems, MINIX has influenced day-to-day industrial practice, including inspiring the initial development of Linux, almost ubiquitous today in many systems, both large and small. Finally, MINIX and Tanenbaum have made significant contributions to the lively debate of monolithic vs microkernel structures in operating systems.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum receives ACM Software System Award - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Tanenbaum created MINIX 1.0 in 1987 to accompany his textbook, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. MINIX was a small microkernel-based UNIX operating system for the IBM PC, which was popular at the time. It was roughly 12,000 lines of code, and in addition to the microkernel, included a memory manager, file system and core UNIX utility programs. It became free open-source software in 2000.
ACM Recognizes Innovators Who Solve Real World Problems
Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Vrije Universiteit, receives the ACM Software System Award for MINIX, which influenced the teaching of Operating Systems principles to multiple generations of students and contributed to the design of widely used operating systems, including Linux.
Tanenbaum created MINIX 1.0 in 1987 to accompany his textbook, “Operating Systems: Design and Implementation.” MINIX was a small microkernel-based UNIX operating system for the IBM PC, which was popular at the time. It was roughly 12,000 lines of code, and in addition to the microkernel, included a memory manager, file system and core UNIX utility programs. It became free open-source software in 2000.
One more piece:
Andrew Tanenbaum honored for pioneering MINIX
Dr Andrew S Tanenbaum – often known as "ast" for short – has been honored in the ACM Technical Awards 2023 with the Association for Computing Machinery's Software System prize. The award is for his creation of the MINIX operating system. It's not as famous as the offspring it directly inspired – the Linux kernel. As well as that, though, MINIX 3 is a true FOSS microkernel OS, and as it's the software that powers the system management controller embedded in most modern Intel processors, it's exceptionally widely used.
The Register:
Andrew Tanenbaum honored for pioneering MINIX, the OS hiding in a lot of computers
Andy Tanenbaum, creator of MINIX, has been recognized for his code, seminal textbooks, and wider educational influence over much of the modern FOSS world.
Dr Andrew S Tanenbaum – often known as "ast" for short – has been honored in the ACM Technical Awards 2023 with the Association for Computing Machinery's Software System prize. The award is for his creation of the MINIX operating system. It's not as famous as the offspring it directly inspired – the Linux kernel. As well as that, though, MINIX 3 is a true FOSS microkernel OS, and as it's the software that powers the system management controller embedded in most modern Intel processors, it's exceptionally widely used.