Guest Talk by Prof. Martin Karsten: "Sustainable Software: Performance ≠ Efficiency"

When: Monday, September 15, 11:30 - 12:30
Where: COMSYS Seminar Room (9007)
Title: Sustainable Software: Performance ≠ Efficiency

Abstract
For the longest time, IT professionals have not properly distinguished between the performance and efficiency of computer systems and software. There are good reasons for this conflation, but it is important to critically scrutinize the underlying assumptions to ensure the sustainable delivery of computing services in the near- and long-term future. In this presentation, Prof. Karsten will discuss recent trends that imply the need to more clearly separate efficiency from performance and to understand the detailed trade-offs between both. He will present recent work in the Linux kernel network stack, introducing a new hybrid mode of operation for packet retrieval that can operate at high efficiency while only minimally affecting peak performance. In the last part of the talk, he will offer a potential road map for studying performance vs. efficiency in system- and application-level software and services.

Speaker Bio
Martin Karsten is a professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, where he is a member of the Systems and Networking group. His research spans operating-system kernels, network architectures, real-time communication, and multi-core performance optimization, with a current focus on software energy efficiency in large-scale data centers. Prof. Karsten earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Technische Universität Darmstadt before joining the University of Waterloo as an assistant professor in 2002. Beyond research, he serves as Associate Director for the Cheriton School of Computer Science and actively contributes to open-source projects—including recent code accepted into the mainline Linux kernel.