David L. Mills (born June 3, 1938) is an American

computer engineer Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and computer software, software. C ...

and

Internet pioneer Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following are some Internet pioneers who contributed to its early and ongoing development. These include early theoretical foundations, specifyi ...

Education

Mills earned his PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1971. 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 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...

mainframe.

Career

In 1977, Mills began working at

COMSAT COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corporation) is a global telecommunications company based in the United States. By 2007, it had branches in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and several other countries in the Americas. ...

. There he worked on synchronizing the clocks of computers connected to

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 ...

, inventing the Network Time Protocol. He told ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' in 2022 that he enjoyed working on synchronized time because no one else was working on it, giving him his own "little fief". In the mid-2000s, Mills turned over full control of the NTP reference implementation to Harlan Stenn. Mills was the chairman of the Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures Task Force (GADS) and the first chairman of the Internet Architecture Task Force. He invented the DEC LSI-11 based Fuzzball router that was used for the 56 kbit/s

NSFNET The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The p ...

(1985), inspired the author of

ping Ping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Ping, a domesticated Chinese duck in the illustrated book '' The Story about Ping'', first published in 1933 * Ping, a minor character in ''Seinfeld'', an NBC sitcom * Ping, a c ...

for BSD (1983), and had the first

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...

implementation. He has authored numerous RFCs. In 1999 he was inducted as a

Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

, and in 2002, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2008, Mills was elected 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 ...

(NAE) for contributions to Internet timekeeping and the development of the Network Time Protocol. In 2013 he received the

IEEE Internet Award IEEE Internet Award is a Technical Field Award established by the IEEE in June 1999. The award is sponsored by Nokia Corporation. It may be presented annually to an individual or up to three recipients, for exceptional contributions to the adv ...

"For significant leadership and sustained contributions in the research, development, standardization, and deployment of quality time synchronization capabilities for the Internet." Mills is an emeritus professor at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

, where he was a full professor from 1986 to 2008. He also holds an adjunct appointment at Delaware so that he can continue to teach.

Personal life

Mills is an amateur radio operator, callsign W3HCF."Amateur License - W3HCF - Mills, David L"
FCC Universal Licensing System Mills has

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

, but a surgeon saved some of the vision in his left eye when he was a kid. He attended a school in San Mateo, California, for the visually impaired. His vision began degrading around 2012 and by 2022 he was fully blind.

References

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 The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

, 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 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 ...

, 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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, David L. 1938 births Living people University of Delaware faculty American computer scientists Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Amateur radio people Internet pioneers University of Michigan alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering