American computer scientist (1938–2024)
David L. Mills
Mills in 2005
Born David Lennox Mills
(1938-06-03 ) June 3, 1938Died January 17, 2024(2024-01-17) (aged 85) Nationality American Education Known for Awards Scientific career Fields Institutions
University of Delaware
Website
www .eecis .udel .edu /~mills
David Lennox Mills (June 3, 1938 – January 17, 2024) was an American
computer engineer and
professor emeritus at the
University of Delaware .
[1] He was an
Internet pioneer who led the
Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures (GADS) Task Force. He was known as the internet's "Father Time"
[2] for designing the
Network Time Protocol , which is intended to synchronize all participating computers across different computer systems and networks to within a few milliseconds of
Coordinated Universal Time .
Early life and education
David Lennox Mills was born in
Oakland, California , on June 3, 1938.
[2]
[3] His mother, Adele (née Dougherty), was a pianist, and his father, Alfred, was an engineer.
[4]
[3] He had
glaucoma since birth, but a surgeon saved some of the vision in his left eye when he was a child.
[2] He attended a school in San Mateo, California, for the visually impaired.
[5]
Mills earned his
PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from the
University of Michigan in 1971.
[5] While at Michigan, he worked on the
ARPA -sponsored Conversational Use of Computers (CONCOMP) project and developed
DEC PDP-8 -based hardware and software to allow terminals to be connected over phone lines to an
IBM 360 mainframe.
[6]
[7]
Career
In 1977, Mills began working at
COMSAT on synchronizing the clocks of computers connected to
ARPANET , inventing the
Network Time Protocol (NTP).
[5]
[8]
[9] NTP is intended to
synchronize all participating computers to within a few
milliseconds of
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
[10] He told
The New Yorker in 2022 that he enjoyed working on synchronized time because no one else was working on it, giving him his own "little fief".
[5] In the mid-2000s, Mills turned over full control of the
NTP reference implementation to
Harlan Stenn .
[5]
Mills was a contributor to the standards and software that came to be the Internet. He was the chairman of the
Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures Task Force (GADS) and the first chairman of the Internet Architecture Task Force.
[11] He invented the
DEC LSI-11 -based
Fuzzball router that was used for the 56 kbit/s
NSFNET (1985),
[12] and inspired the author of
ping .
[13] He authored 28
RFCs ,
[14]
including two
Internet Standards .
[15]
In 1999, he was inducted as a
fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery , and in 2002, he was inducted as a fellow of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to
network protocols and network timekeeping in
the development of the
Internet .
[16] In 2008, Mills was elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for contributions to Internet timekeeping and the development of the Network Time Protocol. In 2013 he received the
IEEE Internet Award "for significant leadership and sustained contributions in the research, development, standardization, and deployment of quality time synchronization capabilities for the Internet."
[17]
Mills was a professor emeritus at the
University of Delaware , where he was a full professor from 1986 to 2008.
[5] He subsequently held an adjunct appointment at Delaware so that he could continue to teach.
[18]
Personal life
Mills married Beverly Csizmadia in 1965.
[4]
Mills was an
amateur radio operator, with callsign W3
HCF .
[2]
[19]
[20]
His vision began worsening around 2012, and by 2022 he was fully blind.
[5] Mills died in
Newark, Delaware , on January 17, 2024, at age 85. He was survived by his wife, his daughter Leigh, his son Keith and his brother Gregory.
[2]
[4]
[3]
[21]
References
^ David L. Mills.
"Biography and Credentials" . David L. Mills, PhD, Professor . University of Delaware.
Archived from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022 .
^
a
b
c
d
e Proven, Liam (January 23, 2024).
"David Mills, the internet's Father Time, dies at 85" . www.theregister.com . Retrieved January 25, 2024 .
^
a
b
c Vynck, Gerrit De (January 26, 2024).
"David Mills, the internet's 'father time,' dies at 85" . The Washington Post .
^
a
b
c Risen, Clay (January 26, 2024).
"David L. Mills, Who Kept the Internet Running on Time, Dies at 85" . The New York Times .
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g Hopper, Nate (September 30, 2022).
"The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet's Time" .
The New Yorker .
Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2022 .
^
The Data Concentrator
Archived January 11, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine , David Mills, May 1968, CONCOMP Project, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
^
System/360 interface engineering report
Archived January 11, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine , D. L. Mills, November 1967, CONCOMP Project, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
^
RFC 778: DCNET Internet Clock Service , D. L. Mills, COMSAT Laboratories, April 18, 1981
^
RFC 958: Network Time Protocol (NTP)
Archived January 20, 2024, at the
Wayback Machine , D. L. Mills, M/A-COM Linkabit, September 1985
^ David L. Mills (2006).
Computer Network Time Synchronization: The Network Time Protocol . Taylor & Francis. p. 3.
ISBN
978-0-8493-5805-0 .
Archived from the original on July 18, 2014.
^ John S. Quarterman (1990).
Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide (2 ed.). Digital Press. pp.
185–186 .
ISBN
1555580335 .
^
"Fuzzball: The Innovative Router"
Archived May 20, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine , web page on NSF's
"The Internet: Changing the Way We Communicate"
Archived May 14, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
^
"The Story of the PING Program" . ftp.arl.army.mil . Retrieved January 21, 2024 .
^
"RFC Index" .
Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2024 .
^
"Official Internet Protocol Standards" .
Archived from the original on January 16, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024 .
^
"IEEE Fellows 2002 | IEEE Communications Society" .
Archived from the original on August 16, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2023 .
^
"IEEE Internet Award Recipients: 2013 – David Mills"
Archived September 23, 2017, at the
Wayback Machine , IEEE Web site, accessed January 27, 2013
^
"David L. Mills, PhD, Professor" .
Archived from the original on January 20, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024 .
^
Dave Mills Personal Stuff
Archived December 23, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine , Web page, University of Delaware
^
"Amateur License – W3HCF – Mills, David L"
Archived June 4, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine , FCC Universal Licensing System
^ Edwards, Benj (January 19, 2024).
"Inventor of NTP Protocol that keeps time on billions of devices dies at age 85" . Ars Technica .
Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024 .
External links
A Maze of Twisty, Turney Passages - Routing in the Internet Swamp . Lecture by David L. Mills at the University of Delaware. Given on May 26, 2005.
Oral history interview with David L. Mills ,
Charles Babbage Institute , University of Minnesota. Interview covers Mills' invention of
Network Time Protocol , his chairing the
Internet Architecture Task Force , and interactions with colleagues including
Vinton Cerf ,
David D. Clark ,
Jon Postel ,
Peter Kirstein , and
David Farber .
The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet's Time , New Yorker article by Nate Hopper. Popular article on NTP, covering some of the contribution and life of David Mills.
International National Academics Other