David L. Mills
E234527
David L. Mills is an American computer engineer and Internet pioneer best known as the principal architect of the Network Time Protocol (NTP), which synchronizes time across computer systems worldwide.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| David L. Mills canonical | 7 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2108325 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: David L. Mills Context triple: [Network Time Protocol, designedBy, David L. Mills]
-
A.
Paul Mockapetris
Paul Mockapetris is an American computer scientist best known as the inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundational technology of the modern internet.
-
B.
Jonathan B. Postel
Jonathan B. Postel was an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer best known for his foundational role in developing and administering core Internet protocols and standards.
-
C.
Steve Crocker
Steve Crocker is an American computer scientist best known for initiating and authoring the first Request for Comments (RFC) documents that shaped the early Internet’s protocols and standards.
-
D.
Alan Emtage
Alan Emtage is a computer scientist best known for creating Archie, the first widely used Internet search engine, which laid foundational groundwork for modern web search.
-
E.
Vinton Cerf
Vinton Cerf is an American computer scientist widely regarded as one of the "fathers of the Internet" for his co-design of the TCP/IP protocols and fundamental contributions to internet architecture.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: David L. Mills Target entity description: David L. Mills is an American computer engineer and Internet pioneer best known as the principal architect of the Network Time Protocol (NTP), which synchronizes time across computer systems worldwide.
-
A.
Paul Mockapetris
Paul Mockapetris is an American computer scientist best known as the inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundational technology of the modern internet.
-
B.
Jonathan B. Postel
Jonathan B. Postel was an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer best known for his foundational role in developing and administering core Internet protocols and standards.
-
C.
Steve Crocker
Steve Crocker is an American computer scientist best known for initiating and authoring the first Request for Comments (RFC) documents that shaped the early Internet’s protocols and standards.
-
D.
Alan Emtage
Alan Emtage is a computer scientist best known for creating Archie, the first widely used Internet search engine, which laid foundational groundwork for modern web search.
-
E.
Vinton Cerf
Vinton Cerf is an American computer scientist widely regarded as one of the "fathers of the Internet" for his co-design of the TCP/IP protocols and fundamental contributions to internet architecture.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Internet pioneer
ⓘ
computer engineer ⓘ human ⓘ network protocol ⓘ |
| abbreviation |
NTP
ⓘ
linked to:
Network Time Protocol
|
| awardReceived |
ACM SIGCOMM Award
ⓘ
linked to:
SIGCOMM Award
Computer Pioneer Award ⓘ
linked to:
IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award
IEEE Internet Award ⓘ IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award ⓘ USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| developed |
Fuzzball router
ⓘ
NTP reference implementation ⓘ
linked to:
Network Time Protocol
Network Time Protocol ⓘ clock discipline algorithms for NTP ⓘ |
| developer | David L. Mills ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
University of Delaware
ⓘ
University of Michigan ⓘ |
| employer |
Comsat
ⓘ
linked to:
COMSAT
Digital Equipment Corporation ⓘ University of Delaware ⓘ University of Maryland ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
computer networking
ⓘ
computer science ⓘ distributed systems ⓘ time synchronization ⓘ |
| influenced |
Internet time synchronization practices
ⓘ
design of timekeeping in networked operating systems ⓘ |
| knownFor |
design of the Network Time Protocol
ⓘ
development of Internet time synchronization standards ⓘ |
| memberOf |
Internet Architecture Board
ⓘ
Internet Engineering Task Force ⓘ |
| notableIdea |
clock filtering and selection algorithms in NTP
ⓘ
hierarchical time synchronization using strata ⓘ use of UTC and leap second handling in NTP ⓘ |
| notableWork |
NTP
ⓘ
linked to:
Network Time Protocol
Network Time Protocol ⓘ |
| occupation |
computer engineer
ⓘ
computer scientist ⓘ university professor ⓘ |
| protocolType | application layer protocol ⓘ |
| runsOn |
User Datagram Protocol
ⓘ
linked to:
UDP
|
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| use | time synchronization over packet-switched networks ⓘ |
| workLocation | Newark, Delaware ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: David L. Mills Description of subject: David L. Mills is an American computer engineer and Internet pioneer best known as the principal architect of the Network Time Protocol (NTP), which synchronizes time across computer systems worldwide.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.