Tom,
> The tricky
> part is that a slow adaptation rate means we can't have every backend
> figuring this out for itself --- the right value would have to be
> maintained globally, and I'm not sure how to do that without adding a
> lot of overhead.
This may be a moot point, since you've stated that changing the loop timing
won't solve the problem, but what about making the test part of make? I
don't think too many systems are going to change processor architectures once
in production, and those that do can be told to re-compile.
--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco