The 19th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets 2020, November 5-6 @ Chicago) will bring together researchers in computer networks and systems to engage in a lively debate on the theory and practice of computer networking. We invite researchers and practitioners to submit short position papers. We encourage papers that identify fundamental open … Read more
The past five years have seen a significant change in the way cloud servers look. Traditionally homogeneous cloud systems are progressively shifting to heterogeneous designs, either through special purpose chips, like Google’s TPUs, or reconfigurable fabrics, like Microsoft’s Catapult and Brainwave projects; sometimes, they even adopt a combination of the two. This post provides an … Read more
With little more than two weeks to go, the ASPLOS 2020 General chair and steering committee decided they could not go forward with the planned physical event 16-20 Mars in Lausanne, Switzerland due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic. With a record-sized program of 86 papers and 400-500 expected attendance, simply canceling the event was … Read more
We build computer systems around abstractions. The right abstractions are timeless and versatile, meaning they apply in many different settings. Such abstractions make developers’ lives easier, and allow system developers and researchers to optimize performance “below the hood”, by changing systems without breaking the abstractions. In this post, I will argue that the abstraction of … Read more