How to improve: performance of query on postgresql 8.3 takes days

Dear postgresql list,

I have some troubles generating data
for a analysis task at hand.

I have a table (table A) containing 5
million records and 28 number of attributes. This table is 461MB big
if I copy it to a csv file.

I want to create another table (table
B) based on the contents of table A plus some 15 extra attributes (in
pl/pgsql written functions which produce those extra attributes)

So my statement looks like this:

create tableB as (
select some attributes,
function1(A.attribute1)as attributeX+1,
function2(A.attribute1,A.Attribute2,A.attribute3,A.attribute4,A.attribute5)
as attribute X+2......function15(A.attribute1,A.attribute9) as
attributeX+15 from tableA as A)

This takes almost 60 hours to finish on
my database server running debian 5.0 with XFS as filesystem
containing 4GB RAM. I'm using postgresql server version 8.3 (but am seeing the same phenomena on my FreeBSD 8.0 database server running postgresql 8.4 as well)

I arrived at 15 functions because I had
7 or 8 joins in the past and saw that my disk was getting hid and I
had heard someplace that RAM is faster so I rewrote those 7 or 8
joins as functions in pl/pgsql. They were just simple lookups,
although some of the functions are looking stuff up in tables
containing 78000 records. However, I thought this wouldn't be a
problem because they are simple functions which look up the value of
one variable based on a parameter. 3 of the more special functions
are shown here:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION agenttype1(a
character)
RETURNS integer AS
$BODY$
DECLARE

i integer;
t1_rij canxagents%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
select * into t1_rij from canxagents
where agent = a;
if NOT FOUND THEN i := 0;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal >= 0 and
t1_rij.aantal <=499 THEN i := 1;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal > 500 and
t1_rij.aantal <=1999 THEN i := 2;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal >= 2000 THEN i
:= 3;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
return i ;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' VOLATILE
COST 100;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION agenttype2(a
character)
RETURNS integer AS
$BODY$
DECLARE

i integer;
t1_rij showagents%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
select * into t1_rij from showagents
where agent = a;
if NOT FOUND THEN i := 0;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal >= 0 and
t1_rij.aantal <=499 THEN i := 1;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal > 500 and
t1_rij.aantal <=999 THEN i := 2;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal >= 1000 THEN i
:= 3;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
return i ;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' VOLATILE
COST 100;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION agenttype3(a
character)
RETURNS integer AS
$BODY$
DECLARE

i integer;
t1_rij noagents%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
select * into t1_rij from noagents
where agent = a;
if NOT FOUND THEN i := 0;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal >= 0 and
t1_rij.aantal <=299 THEN i := 1;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal > 300 and
t1_rij.aantal <=899 THEN i := 2;
ELSE
if t1_rij.aantal >= 900 THEN i :=
3;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
return i ;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' VOLATILE
COST 100;

The interesting parts of my
postgresql.conf file look like this:

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# RESOURCE USAGE (except WAL)
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# - Memory -

shared_buffers = 512MB # min 128kB or
max_connections*16kB

# (change requires restart)
temp_buffers = 8MB # min 800kB
#max_prepared_transactions = 5 # can
be 0 or more
# (change requires restart)
# Note: Increasing
max_prepared_transactions costs ~600 bytes of shared memory
# per transaction slot, plus lock space
(see max_locks_per_transaction).
work_mem = 50MB # min 64kB

maintenance_work_mem = 256MB # min 1MB

#max_stack_depth = 2MB # min 100kB

# - Free Space Map -

max_fsm_pages = 153600 # min
max_fsm_relations*16, 6 bytes each
# (change requires restart)
#max_fsm_relations = 1000 # min 100,
~70 bytes each
# (change requires restart)

# - Kernel Resource Usage -

#max_files_per_process = 1000 # min 25
# (change requires restart)
#shared_preload_libraries = '' #
(change requires restart)

# - Cost-Based Vacuum Delay -

#vacuum_cost_delay = 0 # 0-1000
milliseconds
#vacuum_cost_page_hit = 1 # 0-10000
credits
#vacuum_cost_page_miss = 10 # 0-10000
credits
#vacuum_cost_page_dirty = 20 # 0-10000
credits
#vacuum_cost_limit = 200 # 1-10000
credits

# - Background Writer -

#bgwriter_delay = 200ms # 10-10000ms
between rounds
#bgwriter_lru_maxpages = 100 # 0-1000
max buffers written/round
#bgwriter_lru_multiplier = 2.0 #
0-10.0 multipler on buffers scanned/round

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# WRITE AHEAD LOG
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# - Settings -

#fsync = on # turns forced
synchronization on or off
#synchronous_commit = on # immediate
fsync at commit
#wal_sync_method = fsync # the default
is the first option

# supported by the operating
system:
# open_datasync
# fdatasync
# fsync
# fsync_writethrough
# open_sync
#full_page_writes = on # recover from
partial page writes
#wal_buffers = 64kB # min 32kB
# (change requires restart)
#wal_writer_delay = 200ms # 1-10000
milliseconds

#commit_delay = 0 # range 0-100000,
in microseconds
#commit_siblings = 5 # range 1-1000

# - Checkpoints -

#checkpoint_segments = 3 # in logfile
segments, min 1, 16MB each
#checkpoint_timeout = 5min # range
30s-1h
#checkpoint_completion_target = 0.5 #
checkpoint target duration, 0.0 - 1.0
#checkpoint_warning = 30s # 0 is off

# - Archiving -

#archive_mode = off # allows archiving
to be done
# (change requires restart)
#archive_command = '' # command to use
to archive a logfile segment
#archive_timeout = 0 # force a logfile
segment switch after this
# time; 0 is off

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# QUERY TUNING
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# - Planner Method Configuration -

#enable_bitmapscan = on
#enable_hashagg = on
#enable_hashjoin = on
#enable_indexscan = on
#enable_mergejoin = on
#enable_nestloop = on
#enable_seqscan = on
#enable_sort = on
#enable_tidscan = on

# - Planner Cost Constants -

#seq_page_cost = 1.0 # measured on an
arbitrary scale
#random_page_cost = 4.0 # same scale
as above
#cpu_tuple_cost = 0.01 # same scale
as above
#cpu_index_tuple_cost = 0.005 # same
scale as above
#cpu_operator_cost = 0.0025 # same
scale as above
effective_cache_size = 256MB # was 128

# - Genetic Query Optimizer -

#geqo = on
#geqo_threshold = 12
#geqo_effort = 5 # range 1-10
#geqo_pool_size = 0 # selects default
based on effort
#geqo_generations = 0 # selects
default based on effort
#geqo_selection_bias = 2.0 # range
1.5-2.0

# - Other Planner Options -

#default_statistics_target = 10 #
range 1-1000
#constraint_exclusion = off
#from_collapse_limit = 8
#join_collapse_limit = 8 # 1 disables
collapsing of explicit

# JOIN clauses

Questions

What can I do to let the creation
of table B go faster?
Do you think the use of indices
(but where) would help me? I didn't go that route because in fact I
don't have a where clause in the create table B statement. I could
put indices on the little tables I'm using in the functions.

What about the functions? Should I
code them differently?

What about my server
configuration. What could be done over there?

Thanks in advanced