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  • .NET Core Runtime and Base Class Library Performance

    Microsoft has announced that performance improvements have been made to the runtime and base class libraries in .NET Core. While the performance improvements to ASP.NET Core have received more publicity, these improvements are just as important. Many are based on pull requests from the developer community.

  • Refocusing e-Commerce with Lean

    Auchan:Direct, the online grocery delivery service of Auchan France, decided to apply lean to develop a new e-Commerce website. Their CEO was the first customer and they used continuous and fast feedback from their clients on the new experience to improve website quality using continuous delivery.

  • Facebook Litho: An Android UI Framework Created for Performance

    Facebook has open sourced Litho, a framework for creating user interfaces in Android applications using a React-like declarative style with scrolling performance in mind.

  • Apple Plans to Develop a Fully Custom GPU Architecture

    Apple will develop its own custom graphics architecture to power the GPUs for its future devices, according to UK-based firm Imagination Technologies, Apple’s current GPU provider. The new GPUs should be ready in 15 months to two years' time and will be the first Apple-made GPUs that will bear no resemblance to Imagination Technologies’.

  • Improving IT Performance with Continuous Delivery

    The main benefit of continuous delivery is lower-risk releases; comprehensive test automation and continuous integration are practices that have the biggest impact on IT performance. Research of continuous delivery and IT performance tells us that implementing continuous delivery practices leads to higher IT performance and high performers achieve both higher tempo and higher levels of stability.

  • The Last Frontier in Java Performance: Remove the Garbage Collector

    A new JEP draft has been filed to create a no-op garbage collector: a GC that doesn't actually reclaim memory. This is aimed at aiding JVM implementers and researches and, to a lesser extent, ultra-performant applications that generate little to no garbage. If the JEP goes ahead, the new GC would be available together with the existing ones, and would have no effect unless explicitly activated.

  • Researcher Recognized for Advances in Team Performance Techniques

    Eduardo Salas is recognized by the APA for his 30 years of research on team work. His implementation of team training includes defining team structure, identifying specific communication needs, clarifying roles and leadership skills, and practicing with scenarios. This technique has been used across many fields of work, and is part of the program as NASA prepares to send a team to Mars.

  • SuperPack, a New Serialization Format with a Smaller Payload

    Shape Security has open sourced a new schemaless binary serialization format called SuperPack.

  • Google Releases Android 7.0 with over 250 New Features

    Google has started updating certain devices to the latest Android 7.0, dubbed Nougat. Usually, a new version of Android would start to be pushed to devices during the fall, in late September or even October. But this year they changed the pace, making available a preview in March and the GA in August.

  • Uber Engineering Moving from Postgres to MySQL

    In a recent blog post, Uber detailed why they have chosen to replace PostgreSQL with MySQL. In this article we present a high level overview of the problems they faced, how MySQL fares against them and some of the best rebuttals against the case presented by Uber.

  • How and Why Etsy Moved to an API-First Architecture

    At QCon New York 2016, Etsy software engineer Stefanie Schirmer told how her company successfully transitioned to an API-first architecture that supports multiple devices, addresses server-side performance problems, and was quickly adopted by development teams.

  • Gil Tene: Understanding Hardware Transactional Memory

    In his presentation "Understanding Hardware Transactional Memory" at QCon New York 2016, Gil Tene introduces hardware transactional memory (HTM). Whereas the concept of HTM is not new, it is now finally available in commodity hardware. The purpose of HTM is to be able to write to multiple addresses in memory in an atomical way so that there cannot be inconsistencies in cooperation other threads.

  • Systems Programming in C#

    Although the definition of system programming is fuzzy, it can be described as having to think at the bit, byte, instruction or CPU cycle level. Systems programming also implies demanding performance and reliability requirements. Joe Duffy, engineering director at Microsoft, presented strategies for system programming in C# at QCon New York. He also discusses pitfalls and how to mitigate them.

  • Query Optimizer Improvements in SQL Server 2016

    While the last two versions of SQL Server focused on improving performance by offering new features, SQL Server 2016 looks inwards towards improving existing functionality.

  • Log4j 2.6 Goes Garbage-Free

    Log4j, the popular logging library for Java, will include a number of configuration options that allows it to run in a completely garbage-free manner. The release follows previous attempts to improve the performance of logging libraries, and has been positively received by the industry. Further changes to increase the number of scenarios in which log4j can run garbage-free are expected.

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