I'm not sure that would explain plain CPU performance as shown here. I think SPEC compiles down to native code, so there should be only a fairly limited part of

I'm not sure that would explain plain CPU performance as shown here. I think SPEC compiles down to native code, so there should be only a fairly limited part of the whole stack involved here --- compiler guys for generating good code, kernel guys for scheduling/power management, SoC team for CPU/memory/GPU subsystem implementation. I also thought kernel devs would be working against processor ISAs, not hardware-specific details beyond the ISA.