Benoit Schillings
Benoit Schillings | |
|---|---|
| Born | Belgium |
| Occupation(s) | Software engineer, technology executive |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Known for | Principal developer of the Be Operating System (BeOS) |
Benoit Schillings is a Belgian software engineer currently serving as the vice president of technology at Google DeepMind. Earlier in his career, he held the position of chief technology officer at Google X, where he oversaw pioneering initiatives. Schillings is notably acknowledged for his role as a principal developer of the Be Operating System (BeOS) and pursues amateur astronomy as a personal interest.
Career
In 1990, Schillings became part of Be Inc. after being recruited by founder Jean-Louis Gassée, joining as the second engineer assigned to create the operating system for the BeBox. Beginning in 1991, he was responsible for designing the initial file system known as the Old Be File System (OFS), along with developing Zookeeper, a user-space database application that indexed file metadata. Although this file system was effective, it was eventually superseded by Dominic Giampaolo's Be File System.
Additionally, Schillings developed BeOS’s graphics architecture (App Server) and essential programming frameworks such as the Interface Kit and Application Kit, which facilitated application development on the OS.
Prior to his tenure at Trolltech starting in 2005, Schillings served as CTO and "Distinguished Engineer" at Openwave, where he co-directed the creation of Version 7 of the Openwave Phone Suite mobile applications. Between 2013 and 2017, he led teams focused on Android and iOS mobile platforms at Yahoo.