François Abel         IBM Zurich Research Laboratory   Säumerstrasse 4   CH-8803 Rüschlikon Switzerland Phone:  +41-(0)44-724-8483 Email: fab@zurich.ibm.com

 
I'm a research staff member in the Systems Department of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory (Switzerland), which I joined in 1997. My area of research is point-to-point interconnection networks, with an emphasis on architecture and VLSI design of server interconnect fabrics for computer interconnection networks. I received a Dipl.-Eng. degree from the École Nationale d’Ingénieurs, Belfort, France, and a MS in electrical engineering from the École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs, Marseille, France.

Publications

• "Lightspeed communications in supercomputers"
  C. Minkenberg, F. Abel, R. Luijten
  In ERCIM News, no. 72, Jan. 2008, pp. 51-52.
• "The OSMOSIS optical packet switch for supercomputers: Enabling technologies and measured performance"
  R.R. Grzybowski, B.R. Hemenway, M. Sauer, C. Minkenberg, F. Abel, P. Müller, R. Luijten
  In Proc. IEEE LEOS Photonics in Switching 2007, San Francisco, CA, Aug. 19-22, 2007 (invited).
• "Designing a Crossbar Scheduler for HPC Applications"
  C. Minkenberg, F. Abel, P. Müller, R. Krishnamurthy, M. Gusat, P. Dill, I. Iliadis, R. Luijten, B. R. Hemenway, R. Grzybowski and E. Schiattarella,
  In IEEE Micro, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 58-71, May/Jun, 2006.
  This paper is an extended version of the original submission presented at Hot Intecronnects 13.
• "Distributed Crossbar Schedulers"
  C. Minkenberg, F.Abel, and E. Schiattarella,
  In proceedings of the Workshop on High-Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR 2006), Poznan, Poland, June 7-9, 2006. (slides)
  
• "Control Path Implementation for a Low-Latency Optical HPC Switch"
  C. Minkenberg, F.Abel, P. Mueller, R. Krishnamurthy, and M. Gusat,
  In proceedings of the 13th IEEE Symposium on High Performance Interconnects (Hot Interconnects 13), pp. 29-35. Stanford University, CA, Aug. 17-19, 2005. (slides).
• "Reliable control protocol for crossbar arbitration"
  C. Minkenberg, F. Abel, and M. Gusat,
  In  IEEE Communications Letters, 9 (2): 178-180 Feb. 2005.
• “Low-Latency Pipelined Crossbar Arbitration”
  C. Minkenberg, I. Iliadis, and F. Abel,
  In proceedings of Globecom 2004, Dallas, TX, December 2004 (slides).
• "Design Issues in Next-Generation Merchant Switch Fabrics"
  F. Abel, C. Minkenberg, I. Iliadis, T. Engbersen, M. Gusat, F. Gramsamer, R.P. Luijten
  IEEE/ACM Transaction on Networking, vol. 15, no. 6, Dec. 2007, pp. 1603-1615.
• "Stability Degree of Switches with Finite Buffers and Non-Negligible Round-Trip Time"
  M. Gusat, F. Abel, F. Gramsamer, R. Luijten, C. Minkenberg, and M. Verhappen,
  In Microprocessor and Microsystems Journal, vol 27/5-6,  June 2003, pp 243-252.
  Part of this paper was presented at ICCCN 2002. 
• "A Four-Terabit Packet Switch Supporting Long Round-Trip Times"
  F. Abel, C. Minkenberg, R. Luijten, M. Gusat and I. Iliadis,
  In IEEE Micro Magazine, Jan-Feb 2003, pp. 10-24.
  Part of this paper was presented at Hot Intecronnects X.
  
• "Current Issues in Packet Switch Design"
  C. Minkenberg, R.P. Luijten, F. Abel, W. Denzel, and M. Gusat,
  In proceedings of the First Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HotNets-I), Princeton, NJ, Oct. 28-29, 2002.
  Also appeared in ACM Computer Communications Review 33(1), January 2003, pp. 119–124.
• "Stability of CIOQ Switches with Finite Buffers and Non-Negligible RTT"
  M. Gusat, F. Abel, F. Gramsamer, R. Luijten, C. Minkenberg, and M. Verhappen,
  In proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2002), pp. 444-448. Miami, FL, Oct. 14-16, 2002.
• "A Four-Terabit Single-Stage Packet Switch with Large Round-Trip Time Support"
  F. Abel, C. Minkenberg, R.P. Luijten, M. Gusat, I. Iliadis,
  In proceedings of the 10th Symposium on High Performance Interconnects (Hot Interconnects X), pp. 5-14. Stanford University, CA, Aug. 21-23, 2002. (slides)
• "Optimized Architecture and Design of an Output-Queued CMOS Switch Chip"
  R.P. Luijten, F. Abel, M. Gusat and C. Minkenberg,
  In proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2001), pp. 448-453. Phoenix, AZ, Oct. 15-17, 2001.
• "Design and Verification Methodology of Modern High-Speed Switches"
  F. Abel
  In proceedings of the third edidtion of Sophia Antipolis MicroElectronis forum (SAME 2000), pp. 30-38. Sophia Antipolis, France, Oct. 25-26, 2000. (slides)

Awards

• IBM Invention Achievement Award, Third Plateau, January 2006.
• Best Paper Award, IEEE HOT Interconnects 13, Stanford, CA, August 2005.
  
• IBM Research Division Award, For 2002 Communication Systems publication, June 2003.
• IBM Invention Achievement Award, Second Plateau, August 2002.
• IBM Invention Achievement Award, First Plateau, April 2002.
• IBM Research Division Award, For contributions to the PRIZMA-EP Switch Chip verification, November 2001.
• IBM Research Division Award, For contributions to the PRIZMA Atlantic Switch, May 1999.
  
  

François Abel <fab@zurich.ibm.com>	Last Modified: April 29, 2008
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