@uncharted
Interesting idea. I think that the efficiency benefits are also visible on higher-end systems. Being forced to be efficient may definitely be a contributing factor. Having said that, I'm convinced that the base system design was efficient to start with.
I'm currently working on schemes to get around memory bandwidth limitations. If I had a brand new machine, it probably wouldn't be necessary. However, the schemes (work in blocks that can be kept in the CPU caches, nothing new really) will also benefit faster systems. Maybe all developers should be given a machine with restricted resources, and told to make it work usably on that.
Hans
