Determining maximum possible alignment in C++

Question

Is there any portable way to determine what the maximum possible alignment for any type is?

For example on x86, SSE instructions require 16-byte alignm

Answer 1

In C++11 std::max_align_t defined in header cstddef is a POD type whose alignment requirement is at least as strict (as large) as that of every scalar type.

Using the new alignof operator it would be as simple as alignof(std::max_align_t)