Close to the Metal: Modern low-latency development

“Close to the Metal: Modern Low-Latency Development,” was successfully delivered by Tom Dellmann at the JUXT XT 2026 event and explores how to systematically reduce latency, particularly tail latency, where averages can mask costly performance spikes in a Java-based matching engine.

Through a series of measured experiments, Tom demonstrates the impact of serialisation choices, memory and data structure layout, eliminating garbage collection from the hot path, CPU and cache efficiency, single-threaded workloads, thread affinity, and OS/kernel tuning. The key takeaway is that achieving ultra-low and predictable latency isn’t about a single optimisation. It comes from understanding the entire latency distribution and making targeted, evidence-based improvements across the application stack.

Watch Tom’s full presentation and complete the form below to download the slides, including the benchmarks, techniques, trade-offs, and results behind each optimisation.