>Our goals for portability are limited due to quality reasons.  I
>really don't care if an OS runs on a VAX, if I have an Alpha and
>X86.  Especially I don't care if the alternative is to compromise
>the behavior of my tool, for a problem that I don't have.

The ironic thing is that there are some Alphas where FreeBSD's changes
to the bus_dma API will, in fact, compromise the performance of your
tool:).  Not much, but a little. Perhaps you dont care about them
either, though?