* very efficient. May be useful for calling code to fall back on an alternative implementation
   * that is slower than Unsafe.get/store but faster than the pure-Java mask-and-shift.
   */
  static boolean usingUnsafe() {
    return (byteArray instanceof UnsafeByteArray);
  }

  /**
   * Common interface for retrieving a 64-bit long from a little-endian byte array.
   *