ACM has announced that Rick Rashid of Microsoft and Avie Tevanian of private equity firm Elevation Partners have been selected as the 2014 recipients of the ACM Software System Award “for the design and engineering of the Mach operating system, whose innovative approaches to virtual memory management and microkernel architecture established a foundation for later operating systems on personal computers, tablets, and mobile phones.”
The Mach operating system, a research project funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at Carnegie Mellon University from 1983 through 1992, was based on innovative approaches to virtual memory management and microkernel architecture.
Under the leadership of Rashid and Tevanian, the development of Mach established a foundation for later operating systems on personal computers, tablets, and mobile phones. Mach’s influence reflects both significant commercial acceptance and substantial contributions to the concept of operating systems.
The Mach kernel forms the heart of the Apple iOS and OS X systems. Mach was at the core of NeXT’s operating system, which Apple acquired and subsequently used as the basis of OS X and iOS. Mach’s influence can also be traced to operating systems such as GNU Hurd, and UNIX systems OSF/1, Digital Unix, and Tru64 Unix.
Rashid, who graduated with degrees in mathematics and comparative literature from Stanford University and earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Rochester, founded Microsoft Research in 1991. Today he is vice president and chief research officer of Microsoft’s Applications and Services Group.
Tevanian, who holds a B.A. in mathematics from University of Rochester and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, spent nearly 10 years at Apple and was a member of the leadership team, before becoming managing director of Elevation Partners, a private equity firm.
The ACM Software System Award honors an institution or individual for developing a software system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both. The award is accompanied by a prize of $35,000. Financial support for the award is provided by IBM.
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