It's interesting that this paper, and even the one it references to blame the kernel - these groups don't seem to be interested in fixing kernel problems. Maybe it's just that there are more people doing research on the application level, and for them, working around the kernel makes more sense. Making changes that improve the kernel would have large knock-on benefits in other areas, but those are outside the groups' domain.<p>Tuning kswapd and shootdown would be worthwhile, especially since systems are getting dramatically fatter (even ignoring the appearance of low-latency storage).