HeapBuffers - Why Not Just Using a Binary Serialization Format for Your Managed Memory?

Explore a groundbreaking approach to data serialization and deserialization in Java through this 16-minute conference presentation from OOPSLA 2025. Learn about HeapBuffers, an innovative DSD library that addresses the significant performance overhead caused by Java's managed memory system when handling data serialization operations. Discover how traditional Java applications suffer from expensive serialization costs due to their IO-incompatible, sparse, platform-dependent data layout for object storage, and understand the research question of whether language VMs can bypass these costly operations by operating directly on IO-ready binary formats. Examine the HeapBuffers solution that maintains Java's familiar programming model through managed memory while operating on data stored in a dense, platform-independent memory format, effectively eliminating the need for expensive DSD operations by allowing direct IO operations without object conversion. Understand the technical implementation involving compiler optimizations and specialized garbage collection that ensure HeapBuffers data access performs nearly as efficiently as regular Java objects. Review experimental results demonstrating that HeapBuffers can achieve high-performance data access while making DSD costs negligible, with IO performance often showing orders of magnitude improvement over prevailing DSD libraries. Access supplementary materials including the full research article, artifact archives with reproducible results, and detailed technical documentation from this peer-reviewed research presented by experts from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and USI Lugano.