Bruce,
> Sure, but that assumes you have parallel I/O channels;  I assume right
> now it is I/O limited.
Even a simple cp will be speeded up between 50% and 150% (depending on 
your storage) by doing several files in parallel.  However, I'm not sure 
that's what you should be spending your time on.
-- 
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
www.pgexperts.com