[ajross]

Often. But software is what software does, and a CPU that only worked well on "efficient" code will always fail when compared with one that runs the junk faster than the competition.

Also, to be fair: sometimes a DRAM fetch is just inherent in the problem. Big RAM-resident databases are all about DRAM latency because while sure, it's a lot slower than L1 cache, it's still faster than flash. I mean, memcached is a giant monument in praise of the pipeline stall, and it's hugely successful.

[adrianratnapala]

> But software is what software does, and a CPU that only

Indeed. It is arguably rational for Intel to take on the burden in a centralised place rather than expecting every two-bit software shop to to do it.

But then the existence of this kind of security issue shows that the added complexity is not always worthwhile. We might be forced to to accept that computers which actually behave well are a little bit slower than we thought. But in return they will be simpler and more amenable to software optimisation.