Linus Torvalds (torvalds@linux-foundation.org) on 7/19/10 wrote:
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>- the kind of code you talk about is such a small fraction
>of the code any real CPU runs that it's not really worth
>even bringing up as an argument.
>
This is a judgement call, not an objective fact.

>- even for the kind of code you talk about, that elusive
>"peak performance" is likely higher with OoO!
>
I suspect that when Ian uses the term "peak performance", it means 105% of what it usually means. At least. :-) I don't think he really wished for in-order machines, just for complexity not getting as much in the way of code tuning as it does in the dominant (Intel?) architectures. (See my more verbose explanation in the other posting.)