For linear systems in the controllable canonical form, we introduce a prescribed-time output feedback controller which provides for easy prescription of estimation and stabilization convergence times irrespective of initial conditions and with minimal tuning of the observer and controller parameters. We show that the closed-loop output feedback system is fixed-time globally uniformly asymptotically stable as well as convergent to zero in the prescribed time. Further, we show that a separation principle holds between the prescribed-time controller and the prescribed-time observer provided the scaling power of the time-varying observer gains exceeds the scaling power of the controller gains by twice the order of the system, i.e., provided the observer is fast enough relative to the controller, irrespective of the constant gains of both. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.