diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/atlas/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/atlas/default.nix
index 938778734e09..3cdab4df16f4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/atlas/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/atlas/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl, gfortran, tolerateCpuTimingInaccuracy ? true, shared ? false
-, cpuConfig ? if stdenv.isi686 then "-b 32 -A 18 -V 1" else "-b 64 -A 31 -V 384"
+, cpuConfig ? if stdenv.isi686 then "-b 32 -A 12 -V 1" else "-b 64 -A 14 -V 384"
+, cacheEdge ? "262144"
+, threads ? "0"
 }:
 
 # Atlas detects the CPU and optimizes its build accordingly. This is great when
@@ -9,27 +11,40 @@
 # cannot execute.
 #
 # To avoid these issues, the build is configured using the 'cpuConfig'
-# parameter as follows:
+# parameter. Upstream recommends these defaults for distributions:
 #
 #   | x86 CPU                                     | x86_64 CPU             |
 #   |---------------------------------------------+------------------------|
 #   | -b 32                                       | -b 64                  |
-#   | -A 18  (Pentium II)                         | -A 31 (Athlon K7)      |
-#   | -V 1 (No SIMD: Pentium II doesn't have SSE) | -V 384 (SSE1 and SSE2) |
+#   | -A 12  (x86x87)                             | -A 14 (x86SSE2)        |
+#   | -V 1 (No SIMD)                              | -V 384 (SSE1 and SSE2) |
 #
-# Users who want to compile a highly optimized version of ATLAS that's suitable
-# for their local machine can override these settings accordingly.
+# These defaults should give consistent performance across machines.
+# Performance will be substantially lower than an optimized build, but a build
+# optimized for one machine will give even worse performance on others. If you
+# are a serious user of Atlas (e.g., you write code that uses it) you should
+# compile an optimized version for each of your machines.
+#
+# The parameter 'cacheEdge' sets the L2 cache per core (in bytes). Setting this
+# parameter reduces build time because some tests to detect the L2 cache size
+# will not be run. It will also reduce impurity; different build nodes on Hydra
+# may have different L2 cache sizes, but fixing the L2 cache size should
+# account for that. This also makes the performance of binary substitutes more
+# consistent.
 #
 # The -V flags can change with each release as new instruction sets are added
 # because upstream thinks it's a good idea to add entries at the start of an
 # enum, rather than the end. If the build suddenly fails with messages about
 # missing instruction sets, you may need to poke around in the source a bit.
+#
+# Upstream recommends the x86x87/x86SSE2 architectures for generic x86/x86_64
+# for distribution builds. Additionally, we set 'cacheEdge' to reduce impurity.
+# Otherwise, the cache parameters will be detected by timing which will be
+# highly variable on Hydra.
 
 let
+  inherit (stdenv.lib) optional optionalString;
   version = "3.10.2";
-
-  optionalString = stdenv.lib.optionalString;
-  optional = stdenv.lib.optional;
 in
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
@@ -50,27 +65,50 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   patches = optional tolerateCpuTimingInaccuracy ./disable-timing-accuracy-check.patch;
 
   # Configure outside of the source directory.
-  preConfigure = '' mkdir build; cd build; configureScript=../configure; '';
+  preConfigure = ''
+    mkdir build
+    cd build
+    configureScript=../configure
+  '';
 
   # * -fPIC is passed even in non-shared builds so that the ATLAS code can be
   #   used to inside of shared libraries, like Octave does.
   #
   # * -t 0 disables use of multi-threading. It's not quite clear what the
   #   consequences of that setting are and whether it's necessary or not.
-  configureFlags = "-Fa alg -fPIC -t 0 ${cpuConfig}" + optionalString shared " --shared";
+  configureFlags = [
+    "-Fa alg"
+    "-fPIC"
+    "-t ${threads}"
+    cpuConfig
+  ] ++ optional shared "--shared";
+
+  postConfigure = ''
+    if [[ -n "${cacheEdge}" ]]; then
+      echo '#define CacheEdge ${cacheEdge}' >> include/atlas_cacheedge.h
+      echo '#define CacheEdge ${cacheEdge}' >> include/atlas_tcacheedge.h
+    fi
+  '';
 
   doCheck = true;
 
+  postInstall = ''
+    # Avoid name collision with the real lapack (ATLAS only builds a partial
+    # lapack).
+    mv $out/lib/liblapack.a $out/lib/liblapack_atlas.a
+  '';
+
   meta = {
     homepage = "http://math-atlas.sourceforge.net/";
     description = "Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software (ATLAS)";
     license = stdenv.lib.licenses.bsd3;
 
     longDescription = ''
-      The ATLAS (Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software) project is an ongoing
-      research effort focusing on applying empirical techniques in order to provide
-      portable performance. At present, it provides C and Fortran77 interfaces to a
-      portably efficient BLAS implementation, as well as a few routines from LAPACK.
+      The ATLAS (Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software) project is an
+      ongoing research effort focusing on applying empirical techniques in
+      order to provide portable performance. At present, it provides C and
+      Fortran77 interfaces to a portably efficient BLAS implementation, as well
+      as a few routines from LAPACK.
     '';
 
     maintainers = with stdenv.lib.maintainers; [ ttuegel ];