Stony Brook, NY- January, 2014

IEEE Micro has recognized Stony Brook University Computer Science Professor Michael Ferdman’s paper, Clearing the Clouds: A Study of Emerging Scale-out Workloads on Modern Hardware, as a Top Pick in the field of computer architecture.

The May/June 2014 issue of IEEE Micro’s Top Picks from the Computer Architecture Conferences will feature Prof. Ferdman’s paper as one of the “year’s most significant research papers in computer architecture based on novelty and long-term impact”. IEEE Micro, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, has the fourth highest impact factor out of computer science publications, according to Journal Citation Reports.

Research published in Clearing the Clouds presents the dominant properties of scale-out (datacenter) applications and identifies the key considerations that must drive future processor designs. Clearing the Clouds presents a detailed study of a range of scale-out workloads, finding a large mismatch between the demands of the scale-out workloads and today’s predominant processor microarchitecture. Noting that scale-out workloads share many inherent characteristics that place them into a distinct workload class, the research outlines a path toward the design of efficient server processors by leveraging the properties common to scale-out workloads.

Ferdman conducted this study with the PARSA and DIAS labs at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The results were originally presented at the Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS) 2012 conference in London, where the work received the Best Paper award. To learn more about the behavior of scale-out workloads and its implications on server processor design, download Ferdman’s paper at http://tinyurl.com/nmso4u9

Currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stony Brook University, Dr. Ferdman earned his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. His research focus is computer architecture with an emphasis on server system design. Dr. Ferdman directs the Computer Architecture Stony Brook (COMPAS) Lab and teaches graduate level courses in computer architecture and operating systems.

About Computer Science Department at Stony Brook University 
The Department of Computer Science at SBU is ranked among the top 20 computer science departments in the nation by the National Research Council. Interdisciplinary collaboration and research recognition elevated the Department to be the largest and one of the strongest units at SBU. The Department boasts internationally renowned faculty who have made significant contributions in computer systems and architecture, visual computing, cybersecurity, networking, intelligent computing, algorithms, and verification.