diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
index bff75155f..3669bf1cf 100644
--- a/INSTALL.md
+++ b/INSTALL.md
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ depend on gflags. You will need to have gflags installed to run `make all`. This
 use binaries compiled by `make all` in production.
 
 * By default the binary we produce is optimized for the platform you're compiling on
-(-march=native). If you want to build a portable binary, add 'PORTABLE=1' before
+(-march=native or the equivalent). If you want to build a portable binary, add 'PORTABLE=1' before
 your make commands, like this: `PORTABLE=1 make static_lib`
 
 ## Dependencies
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 396b8e201..4dba4f6d2 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ endif
 # compile with -O2 if debug level is not 2
 ifneq ($(DEBUG_LEVEL), 2)
 OPT += -O2 -fno-omit-frame-pointer
-ifneq ($(MACHINE),ppc64) # ppc64 doesn't support -momit-leaf-frame-pointer
+ifeq (,$(findstring ppc64,$(MACHINE))) # ppc64[le] doesn't support -momit-leaf-frame-pointer
 OPT += -momit-leaf-frame-pointer
 endif
 endif
diff --git a/build_tools/build_detect_platform b/build_tools/build_detect_platform
index fc099a540..80905266f 100755
--- a/build_tools/build_detect_platform
+++ b/build_tools/build_detect_platform
@@ -359,7 +359,13 @@ if test "$USE_SSE"; then
   # if Intel SSE instruction set is supported, set USE_SSE=1
   COMMON_FLAGS="$COMMON_FLAGS -msse -msse4.2 "
 elif test -z "$PORTABLE"; then
-  COMMON_FLAGS="$COMMON_FLAGS -march=native "
+  if test -n "`echo $TARGET_ARCHITECTURE | grep ^ppc64`"; then
+    # Tune for this POWER processor, treating '+' models as base models
+    POWER=`LD_SHOW_AUXV=1 /bin/true | grep AT_PLATFORM | grep -E -o power[0-9]+`
+    COMMON_FLAGS="$COMMON_FLAGS -mcpu=$POWER -mtune=$POWER "
+  else
+    COMMON_FLAGS="$COMMON_FLAGS -march=native "
+  fi
 fi
 
 PLATFORM_CCFLAGS="$PLATFORM_CCFLAGS $COMMON_FLAGS"