Several performance enhancements have been added:
-.. * A new :program:`configure` option, :option:`--with-computed-gotos`,
- compiles the main bytecode interpreter loop using a new dispatch
- mechanism that gives speedups of up to 20%, depending on the system
- and benchmark. The new mechanism is only supported on certain
- compilers, such as gcc, SunPro, and icc.
-
* The garbage collector now performs better when many objects are
being allocated without deallocating any. A full garbage collection
pass is only performed when the middle generation has been collected