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Dave Cutler

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For other people named Dave Cutler, seeDave Cutler (disambiguation).
Dave Cutler
Cutler at work onMicrosoft Azure(2008)
Born(1942-03-13)March 13, 1942(age 82)[1]
Lansing, Michigan,United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOlivet College
Known forDeveloping several widely-used commercialoperating systems:
Microsoft:Windows NT
Digital Equipment Corporation:RSX-11M,VMS,VAXELN,MICA
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
Operating systemdesign
InstitutionsDuPont
Digital Equipment Corporation
Microsoft(Senior Technical Fellow)
University of Washington

David Neil Cutler Sr.(born March 13, 1942) is an Americansoftware engineer.He developed several computeroperating systems,namelyMicrosoft'sWindows NT,andDigital Equipment Corporation'sRSX-11M,VAXELN,andVMS.[2]

Personal history[edit]

Cutler was born inLansing, Michiganand grew up inDeWitt, Michigan.After graduating fromOlivet College,Michigan, in 1965, he went to work forDuPont.

Cutler holds at least 20 patents, and is affiliate faculty in the Computer Science Department at theUniversity of Washington.[3]

Cutler is an avidauto racingdriver. He competed in theAtlantic Championshipfrom 1996 to 2002, scoring a career best of 8th on theMilwaukee Milein 2000.[2]

Cutler was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineeringin 1994 for the design and engineering of commercially successful operating systems.

Cutler is a member of Adelphic Alpha Pi Fraternity atOlivet College,Michigan.[4]

DuPont (1965 to 1971)[edit]

Cutler's first exposure to computers came when he was tasked to perform acomputer simulationsmodel for one of DuPont's customers using IBM'sGPSS-3 language on anIBM model 7044.[5]This work led to an interest in how computers and their operating systems worked.

Digital Equipment Corporation (1971 to 1988)[edit]

Cutler left DuPont to pursue his interest in computer systems, beginning withDigital Equipment Corporationin 1971. He worked atDigital's headquartersinMaynard, Massachusetts.[6]

RSX-11M[edit]

Main article:RSX-11

VMS[edit]

Main article:OpenVMS

In April 1975, DEC began a hardware project, code-namedStar,to design a 32-bit virtual address extension to itsPDP-11.In June 1975, Cutler, together withDick Hustvedtand Peter Lipman, were appointed the technical project leaders for the software project, code-namedStarlet,to develop a totally new operating system for the Star family of processors. These two projects were tightly integrated from the beginning.

The three technical leaders of the Starlet project together with three technical leaders of the Star project formed the "Blue Ribbon Committee" at DEC that produced the fifth design evolution for the programs. The design featured simplifications to the memory management and process scheduling schemes of the earlier proposals and the architecture was accepted. The Star and Starlet projects culminated in the development of theVAX-11/780superminicomputer and the VAX/VMS operating system, respectively.

PRISM and MICA projects[edit]

Main articles:DEC PRISMandDEC MICA

DEC began working on a new CPU usingreduced instruction set computer(RISC) design principles in 1986. Cutler, who was working in DEC's DECwest facility in Bellevue, Washington, was selected to headPRISM,a project to develop the company's RISC machine. Its operating system, code namedMICA,was to embody the next generation of design principles and have a compatibility layer for Unix and VMS. The RISC machine was to be based onemitter-coupled logic(ECL) technology, and was one of three ECL projects DEC was undertaking at the time.

Funding the research and development of multiple ECL projects yielding products that would ultimately compete against each other was a strain. Of the three ECL projects, the VAX 9000 was the only one that was directly commercialized. Primarily because of the early successes of thePMAXadvanced development project and the need for differing business models, PRISM was canceled in 1988 in favor of PMAX.

PRISM later surfaced as the basis of DEC'sAlphafamily of computer systems.[7]

Attitude towards Unix[edit]

Cutler is known for his disdain forUnix.Said one team member who worked with Cutler:[8]

Unix is like Cutler's lifelong foe. It's like hisMoriarty.He thinks Unix is a junk operating program designed by a committee of PhDs. There's never been one mind behind the whole thing, and it shows. So he's always been out to get Unix.

Microsoft (1988 – present)[edit]

Microsoft Windows NT[edit]

Cutler left DEC for Microsoft in October 1988 and led the development of Windows NT. Later, he worked on targeting Windows NT to DEC's 64-bitAlphaarchitecture then onWindows 2000.After the demise of Windows on Alpha (and the demise of DEC), he was instrumental in porting Windows to AMD's new 64-bitAMD64architecture. He was involved with theWindows XPPro x64 andWindows Server2003 SP1 x64 releases. He moved to working on Microsoft's Live Platform in August 2006. Cutler was awarded the prestigious status of Senior Technical Fellow at Microsoft.

Microsoft Windows Azure[edit]

At the 2008Professional Developers Conference,Microsoft announcedAzure Services Platform,acloud-basedoperating systemwhich Microsoft is developing. During the conference keynote, Cutler was mentioned as a lead developer on the project, along with Amitabh Srivastava.[9]

Microsoft Xbox[edit]

In January 2012, a spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed that Cutler was no longer working on Windows Azure, and had joined theXboxteam.[10]In May 2013, Microsoft announced the Xbox One console, and Cutler was mentioned as having worked in developing the host OS of the new gaming device. Apparently his work was focused on creating an optimized version of Microsoft'sHyper-VHost OS specifically designed for Xbox One.[11]

Awards[edit]

  • Recognized as a 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation Laureate, awarded on 29 September 2008 at a White House ceremony in Washington, DC.[12][13]
  • Honored as a Computer History Museum Fellow on 16 April 2016 at theComputer History Museumin Mountain View, California.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^Zachary, G. Pascal (2014).Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft.Open Road Media.ISBN978-1-4804-9484-8.Retrieved12 February2020.
  2. ^ab"2007 Microsoft Technical Recognition Award: Senior Technical Fellow David Cutler".Microsoft, USA. Archived fromthe originalon 2017-02-22.Retrieved27 April2017.
  3. ^"Affiliate Faculty".The University of Washington.RetrievedAugust 24,2019.
  4. ^"About Adelphic Alpha Pi".RetrievedAugust 12,2023.
  5. ^"David Cutler: The Engineer's Engineer at Microsoft".Microsoft, USA.Retrieved18 April2016.
  6. ^Russinovich, Mark (30 November 1998)."Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story".Penton, USA. Archived fromthe originalon 29 May 2017.Retrieved27 April2017.
  7. ^"EV-4 (1992)".2008-02-24.
  8. ^Zachary, G. Pascal (1994).Show-stopper!: the breakneck race to create Windows NT and the next generation at Microsoft.New York: Free Press. p. 94.ISBN0029356717.
  9. ^"Professional Developers Conference 2008 Day 1 Keynote: Ray Ozzie, Amitabh Srivastava, Bob Muglia, Dave Thompson".Microsoft, USA. 27 October 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 2008-11-01.Retrieved29 October2008.
  10. ^"Microsoft Confirms Dave Cutler, Father of Windows NT, Now Working on Xbox".ZDNet.CBS Interactive, USA. Archived fromthe originalon January 20, 2012.
  11. ^"The Engineer's Engineer: Dave Cutler at Microsoft".Retrieved4 August2016.
  12. ^"U.S. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez Announces Technology Council".United States Patent and Trademark Office. 19 August 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 7 October 2012.Retrieved3 May2012.
  13. ^"President Bush Presents 2007 National Medals of Science and Technology and Innovation".United States Government. 29 September 2008.Retrieved3 May2012.
  14. ^"Computer History Museum Fellow Awards".Computer History Museum, USA.Retrieved18 April2016.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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