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Systems programming and performance

Memory management, allocation, garbage collection, CPU caches, data layout, low-level performance, and systems programming.

3,848 stories · 83 in 30 days · Updated Sep 28, 2026

The pace of conversation

Posts per month

2020-01: 40 posts2020-02: 50 posts2020-03: 49 posts2020-04: 44 posts2020-05: 56 posts2020-06: 34 posts2020-07: 38 posts2020-08: 37 posts2020-09: 44 posts2020-10: 44 posts2020-11: 41 posts2020-12: 32 posts2021-01: 46 posts2021-02: 37 posts2021-03: 35 posts2021-04: 37 posts2021-05: 55 posts2021-06: 38 posts2021-07: 48 posts2021-08: 46 posts2021-09: 37 posts2021-10: 22 posts2021-11: 37 posts2021-12: 29 posts2022-01: 52 posts2022-02: 31 posts2022-03: 39 posts2022-04: 32 posts2022-05: 45 posts2022-06: 50 posts2022-07: 38 posts2022-08: 51 posts2022-09: 47 posts2022-10: 43 posts2022-11: 51 posts2022-12: 39 posts2023-01: 49 posts2023-02: 44 posts2023-03: 35 posts2023-04: 29 posts2023-05: 38 posts2023-06: 50 posts2023-07: 39 posts2023-08: 31 posts2023-09: 43 posts2023-10: 38 posts2023-11: 27 posts2023-12: 42 posts2024-01: 62 posts2024-02: 51 posts2024-03: 50 posts2024-04: 39 posts2024-05: 47 posts2024-06: 51 posts2024-07: 37 posts2024-08: 46 posts2024-09: 39 posts2024-10: 43 posts2024-11: 56 posts2024-12: 35 posts2025-01: 52 posts2025-02: 59 posts2025-03: 60 posts2025-04: 38 posts2025-05: 83 posts2025-06: 57 posts2025-07: 55 posts2025-08: 37 posts2025-09: 56 posts2025-10: 61 posts2025-11: 45 posts2025-12: 67 posts2026-01: 69 posts2026-02: 63 posts2026-03: 85 posts2026-04: 74 posts2026-05: 69 posts2026-06: 79 posts2026-07: 69 posts2026-08: 77 posts2026-09: 78 posts
2020-012026-09

Posts per month · first and latest months may be partial.

01 / EXPLORE THROUGH TIME

Timeline

Start with the latest. Scroll back through time, or zoom in for more.

Year by yearUp to 5 stories per year
2026663 stories
Reverting the incremental GC in Python 3.14 and 3.15↗ discuss.python.org · HN · 130 comments · 265 points · May 09, 2026
447 TB/cm² at zero retention energy – atomic-scale memory on fluorographane↗ zenodo.org · HN · 154 comments · 265 points · Apr 11, 2026
MiniStack (replacement for LocalStack)↗ ministack.org · HN · 67 comments · 317 points · Mar 31, 2026
Meta’s renewed commitment to jemalloc↗ engineering.fb.com · HN · 239 comments · 515 points · Mar 16, 2026
Finding and fixing Ghostty's largest memory leak↗ mitchellh.com · HN · 138 comments · 632 points · Jan 10, 2026
2025670 stories
John Carmack on mutable variables↗ twitter.com · HN · 627 comments · 515 points · Oct 31, 2025
Fil's Unbelievable Garbage Collector↗ fil-c.org · HN · 281 comments · 603 points · Sep 05, 2025
There is no memory safety without thread safety↗ ralfj.de · HN · 503 comments · 456 points · Jul 24, 2025
Jemalloc Postmortem↗ jasone.github.io · HN · 233 comments · 801 points · Jun 13, 2025
For algorithms, a little memory outweighs a lot of time↗ quantamagazine.org · HN · 139 comments · 343 points · May 21, 2025
2024556 stories
Debugging memory corruption: who the hell writes "2" into my stack? (2016)↗ unity.com · HN · 190 comments · 369 points · Dec 28, 2024
Eliminating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities at the Source↗ security.googleblog.com · HN · 190 comments · 330 points · Sep 25, 2024
Garbage collection for systems programmers (2023)↗ bitbashing.io · HN · 267 comments · 396 points · Mar 30, 2024
gh-116167: Allow disabling the GIL↗ github.com · HN · 247 comments · 470 points · Mar 11, 2024
Gemini can't show me the fastest way to copy memory in C# because it's unethical↗ twitter.com · HN · 341 comments · 482 points · Feb 09, 2024
2023465 stories
vmcache: Virtual-Memory Assisted Buffer Management [pdf]↗ cs.cit.tum.de · HN · 4 comments · 38 points · Dec 31, 2023
Unexpected ways memory subsystem interacts with branch prediction↗ johnnysswlab.com · HN · 27 comments · 89 points · Dec 29, 2023
Otter, Fastest Go in-memory cache based on S3-FIFO algorithm↗ github.com · HN · 71 comments · 184 points · Dec 23, 2023
Memory safety is necessary, not sufficient↗ steveklabnik.com · HN · 158 comments · 193 points · Dec 22, 2023
Using mmap to make LLaMA load faster↗ justine.lol · HN · 48 comments · 120 points · Apr 05, 2023
2022518 stories
Improving Firefox stability on Windows by retrying failed memory allocation↗ hacks.mozilla.org · HN · 318 comments · 558 points · Nov 22, 2022
Why does calloc exist? (2016)↗ vorpus.org · HN · 163 comments · 303 points · Nov 13, 2022
A database without dynamic memory allocation↗ tigerbeetle.com · HN · 186 comments · 359 points · Oct 13, 2022
All About Libpas, Phil's Super Fast Malloc↗ github.com · HN · 81 comments · 287 points · Jun 01, 2022
Chris Lattner on garbage collection vs. Automatic Reference Counting (2017)↗ atp.fm · HN · 250 comments · 326 points · Apr 23, 2022
2021467 stories
GC progress from JDK 8 to JDK 17↗ kstefanj.github.io · HN · 190 comments · 318 points · Nov 24, 2021
Debugging memory corruption: who the hell writes “2” into my stack? (2016)↗ blog.unity.com · HN · 144 comments · 409 points · Nov 14, 2021
Malloc broke Serenity's JPGLoader, or: how to win the lottery↗ sin-ack.github.io · HN · 164 comments · 335 points · Jun 02, 2021
Mitigating Memory Safety Issues in Open Source Software↗ security.googleblog.com · HN · 236 comments · 376 points · Feb 18, 2021
Why mmap is faster than system calls (2019)↗ sasha-f.medium.com · HN · 203 comments · 382 points · Jan 09, 2021
2020509 stories
“To be safe allocate 5 bytes more than you need”↗ twitter.com · HN · 162 comments · 274 points · Nov 23, 2020
Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020↗ sizecoding.org · HN · 119 comments · 574 points · Apr 28, 2020
Sorting 1M 8-digit numbers in 1 MB of RAM (2012)↗ stackoverflow.com · HN · 60 comments · 266 points · Mar 29, 2020
Does memory leak? (1995)↗ groups.google.com · HN · 279 comments · 503 points · Feb 22, 2020
CacheOut: Leaking Data on Intel CPUs via Cache Evictions↗ cacheoutattack.com · HN · 130 comments · 607 points · Jan 27, 2020
Scroll through time ↕

02 / CATCH UP

The conversation now

Popular stories, with attention fading over roughly two weeks.

Comparison of Malloc() Algorithms↗ egbert.net · HN · 51 comments · 144 points · Sep 15, 2026
Functional Mechanical Sympathy [video]↗ youtube.com · HN · 11 comments · 61 points · Sep 26, 2026
Packing Binary Is Fun↗ hereticpleb.vercel.app · HN · 15 comments · 35 points · Sep 28, 2026
High-performance garbage collection for C++↗ v8.dev · HN · 24 comments · 77 points · Sep 14, 2026
Static Allocation, Constant Work↗ matklad.github.io · HN · 30 comments · 135 points · Sep 02, 2026

03 / GO DEEPER

Follow your curiosity

Find a particular story, revisit a year, or see what resonated.

Highest rated · the last 30 days

Comparison of Malloc() Algorithms↗ egbert.net · HN · 51 comments · 144 points · Sep 15, 2026
Static Allocation, Constant Work↗ matklad.github.io · HN · 30 comments · 135 points · Sep 02, 2026
High-performance garbage collection for C++↗ v8.dev · HN · 24 comments · 77 points · Sep 14, 2026
Functional Mechanical Sympathy [video]↗ youtube.com · HN · 11 comments · 61 points · Sep 26, 2026
Show HN: DOOM in the kernel, or fibers in eBPF↗ ayles.github.io · HN · 14 comments · 53 points · Sep 09, 2026
Packing Binary Is Fun↗ hereticpleb.vercel.app · HN · 15 comments · 35 points · Sep 28, 2026
Size-Specialized Memory Allocation↗ go.dev · HN · 5 comments · 32 points · Sep 17, 2026
Why is Arrays.fill 265 times slower on G1GC?↗ krzysztofslusarski.github.io · HN · 27 comments · 31 points · Sep 01, 2026
Testing race conditions with mem access tracing and stack-based delay injection↗ projectzero.google · HN · 1 comments · 19 points · Sep 09, 2026
Java is memory efficient [audio]↗ inside.java · HN · 19 comments · 19 points · Aug 30, 2026

10 stories shown.

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