HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Danny Cohen (December 9, 1937 – August 12, 2019) was an Israeli American computer scientist specializing in
computer network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...
ing. He was involved in the
ARPAnet The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
project and helped develop various fundamental applications for the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
. He was one of the key figures behind the separation of TCP and IP (early versions of TCP did not have a separate IP layer); this allowed the later creation of UDP.''Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet'', by
Katie Hafner Katie Hafner (born December 5, 1957) is an American journalist and author. She is a former staff member of '' The New York Times'', and has written articles about technology, healthcare, and society, and books about the computer underground, the ...
and Matthew Lyon, 1996, Simon & Schuster, , pg. 236
Cohen is probably now best known for his 1980 paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" Also published at ''
IEEE Computer ''Computer'' is an IEEE Computer Society practitioner-oriented magazine issued to all members of the society. It contains peer-reviewed articles, regular columns, and interviews on current computing-related issues. ''Computer'' provides informa ...
''
October 1981 issue
which adopted the terminology of
endianness In computing, endianness, also known as byte sex, is the order or sequence of bytes of a word of digital data in computer memory. Endianness is primarily expressed as big-endian (BE) or little-endian (LE). A big-endian system stores the mos ...
for computing (a term borrowed from
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...
's ''
Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...
''). Cohen served on the computer science faculty at several universities and worked in the private industry.


Biography

Cohen earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at the
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ( he, הטכניון – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion ...
in 1963. He was a graduate student in the math department at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
(MIT) from 1965 to 1967. In 1967, Cohen developed the first real-time visual flight simulator on a general purpose computer and the first real-time radar simulator. Cohen's flight simulation work led to the development of the Cohen-Sutherland computer graphics
line clipping In computer graphics, line clipping is the process of removing (clipping) lines or portions of lines outside an area of interest (a viewport or view volume). Typically, any part of a line which is outside of the viewing area is removed. There a ...
algorithms, created with
Ivan Sutherland Ivan Edward Sutherland (born May 16, 1938) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subject ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
.''Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics'' p.124 and p.252, by
Bob Sproull Robert Fletcher "Bob" Sproull (born c. 1945) is an American computer scientist, who worked for Oracle Corporation where he was director of Oracle Labs in Burlington, Massachusetts. He is currently an adjunct professor at the College of Informa ...
and William M. Newman, 1973, McGraw-Hill Education, International edition,
He received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1969 as a student of Sutherland. His thesis was titled: "Incremental Methods for Computer Graphics". After serving on the computer science faculty at Harvard through 1973, and at
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1976, Cohen joined the
Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications tech ...
at the
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
to work on a packet-voice project designed to allow interactive, real-time speech over the
ARPANet The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
(and the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
during its early development). The
Network Voice Protocol The Network Voice Protocol (NVP) was a pioneering computer network protocol for transporting human speech over packetized communications networks. It was an early example of Voice over Internet Protocol technology. History NVP was first defin ...
project was a forerunner of
Voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...
(VoIP). In 1981, he adapted the visual simulator to run over the ARPANet which was an early application of packet switching networks to real-time applications. He started the MOSIS project in 1980. In 1993, he worked on
Distributed Interactive Simulation Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) is an IEEE standard for conducting real-time platform-level wargaming across multiple host computers and is used worldwide, especially by military organizations but also by other agencies such as those i ...
through several projects funded by the
United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...
(DoD). He prototyped a
local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a large ...
technology called ATOMIC, which was the forerunner of
Myrinet Myrinet, ANSI/VITA 26-1998, is a high-speed local area networking system designed by the company Myricom to be used as an interconnect between multiple machines to form computer clusters. Description Myrinet was promoted as having lower protocol ...
. In 1994, Cohen co-founded Myricom (with Chuck Seitz, and others) which commercialized Myrinet. Cohen also started the FastXchange project for
electronic commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manage ...
and a digital library. Cohen served on several panels and boards for the US DoD,
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...
, and
United States National Research Council The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...
, including 5 years on the USAF Scientific Advisory Board. He served as both a factual and expert witness in patent infringement legal cases about VoIP. Cohen was a commercial pilot with SEL/MEL/SES and Instrument ratings. In 1993 Cohen received the
Meritorious Civilian Service Award The Meritorious Civilian Service Award is commonly the highest award granted by U.S. Army Commanders (Major General and above, or civilian equivalent). The Award and Medal is provided to civilian employees within agencies of the federal governmen ...
from the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...
. He was a member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
(2006) and an
IEEE Fellow As of 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 5,082 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membershi ...
(2010). Since 2001, Cohen was a distinguished engineer for
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...
working on very fast communication over short distances, using optical and electrical signaling, in Sun's chief technical officer organization. Cohen continued as an adjunct professor of computer science at USC. In 2012, Cohen was inducted into the
Internet Hall of Fame The Internet Hall of Fame is an honorary lifetime achievement award administered by the Internet Society (ISOC) in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet.
by the
Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...
. In 2013
Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that include ...
hosted an event at
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
honoring Cohen. Danny Cohen died in
Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...
on August 12, 2019 at the age of 81.


Selected publications

* — also published in ''
IEEE Computer ''Computer'' is an IEEE Computer Society practitioner-oriented magazine issued to all members of the society. It contains peer-reviewed articles, regular columns, and interviews on current computing-related issues. ''Computer'' provides informa ...
''
October 1981 issue
* "AI as the Ultimate Enhancer of Protocol design" (with J. Finnegan), ''Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering'', Ed. Derek Partridge, ABLEX Publishing Corporation, Norwood, NJ. , 1991, Chapter 22, pp. 463–472, and also in the Proceedings of the Third Annual Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computer Technology Conference, Long Beach, CA, April 1987, pp. 329–337. Available online a

* "Protocols for Dating Coordination" (with Y. Yemini), Proceedings of the Fourth Berkeley Conference on Distributed Data Management and Computer Networks, San Francisco, CA, August 1979, pp. 179–188. * "Incremental Methods for Computer Graphics" (PhD Thesis), Harvard Report ESD-TR-69-193, April 1969. Available from DTIC (AD #AD694550/U). * "On Linear Differences Curves", published as a chapter in the book ''Advanced Computer Graphics, Economics, Techniques and Applications'', edited by Parslow and Green, Pleunum Press, London 1971, and also in Proceedings of the Computer Graphics '70 Conference, Brunel University, England, April 1970. * "RFC 0741: Specifications for the Network Voice Protocol (NVP)", Nov-22-1977. * "A VLSI Approach to Computational Complexity" by Professor J. Finnegan, in ''VLSI, Systems and Computation'', edited by H. T. Kung,
Bob Sproull Robert Fletcher "Bob" Sproull (born c. 1945) is an American computer scientist, who worked for Oracle Corporation where he was director of Oracle Labs in Burlington, Massachusetts. He is currently an adjunct professor at the College of Informa ...
, and Guy L. Steele Jr., Computer Science Press, 1981, pp. 124–125. * "A Voice Message System", in Computer Message Systems edited by R. P. Uhlig, North-Holland 1981, pp. 17–28. * "The ISO Reference Model and Other Protocol Architectures" (with J. B. Postel), in
International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...
1983, Paris, September 1983, pp. 29–34. * "MOSIS: Present and Future" (with G. Lewicki, P. Losleben, and D. Trotter) 1984 Conference on Advanced Research in VLSI,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
, January 1984, pp. 124–128. * "A Mathematical Approach to Computational Network Design", Chapter 1 in ''Systolic Signal Processing Systems'' (E. E. Swartzlander, ed.), Marcel Dekker, 1987, pp. 1–29. * "Computerized Commerce",
International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...
1989, San Francisco, August 1989, pp. 1095–1100. * "Myrinet: A Gigabit-per-Second Local Area Network" (with Boden, Felderman, Kulawik, Seitz, Seizovic, and Su), IEEE-MICRO, February 1995, pp. 29–36. * "RFC 1807: A Format for Bibliographic Records" (with R. Lasher), IETF, June 1995. * "The Internet of Things" (with N. Gershenfeld and R. Krikorian), ''Scientific American'', October 2004, pp. 76–81. * "Internet-0: Interdevice Internetworking" (with N. Gershenfeld), ''IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine'', September/October 2006, Vol:22, Issue:5, pp. 48–55 * "The world according to Professor James A Finnegan" A collection of entertaining essays about computers, life, the universe, and everything else. By Danny Cohen. Edited by Ron Ho. April 2014, ISBN 978-1495220852


Patents


US_Patent_7,573,720_(2009)_Active_socket_for_facilitating_proximity_communication
.html" ;"title="proximity communication">US Patent 7,573,720 (2009) Active socket for facilitating proximity communication
">proximity communication">US Patent 7,573,720 (2009) Active socket for facilitating proximity communication

US Patent 7,561,584 (2009) Implementation of a graph property in a switching fabric for fast networking

US Patent 7,525,199 (2009) Packaging for proximity communication positioned integrated circuits

US Patent 7,460,035 (2008) Balanced code with opportunistically reduced transitions

US Patent 3,769,442 (1973) Compressed Data Base for Radar Land Mass Simulator


References


External links

*
Sun Microsystems Bolsters Top Technical Roster and Recognizes New Member of the National Academy of Engineering
2006 *
''Smart Computing'' Reference Series
, Encyclopedia May 2002, Volume 6, Issue 5 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Danny 1937 births 2019 deaths American computer scientists California Institute of Technology alumni Commercial aviators Fellow Members of the IEEE Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Internet pioneers Israeli emigrants to the United States Israeli Jews Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering People from Haifa Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni