  We introduce a new update scheme to systematically improve the efficiency of
parallel tempering simulations. We show that by adapting the number of sweeps
between replica exchanges to the canonical autocorrelation time, the average
round-trip time of a replica in temperature space can be significantly
decreased. The temperatures are not dynamically adjusted as in previous
attempts but chosen to yield a 50% exchange rate of adjacent replicas. We
illustrate the new algorithm with results for the Ising model in two and the
Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass in three dimensions
