The SQL was not I/O bound, per se - that is database/implementation-specific. The benchmarks were evaluated on "hot" data with plenty of RAM available (like any good production system).
Some databases don't manage that situation as well as they should. I.e. - they were developed in an era of small RAM & large disk.
> And if it's not I/O bound, you're not pushing it right.
That's exactly the point. k is "pushing it right" while the others don't do nearly as well.
> the new OS probably doesn't natively support 99.9% of existing high performance hardware.
At <500 LOC of ANSI C there's not much to port to new hardware, given a decent C compiler.
