Good morning Keith, Have a look at http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/rw-FAQ.html#There-seems-to-be-a-limit-on-the-memory-it-uses_0021
The short answer is that "it depends"... a) memory is limited under windows b) R is essentially a serial program - HOWEVER it depends what you're actually doing - if you're working with large matrices then there are parallel versions of BLAS that can be used... On a multi-core windows machine with lots of memory you can of course run up multiple copies of R and run each independently Kind regards, Sean On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:40 AM, Keith Satterley <ke...@wehi.edu.au> wrote: > I've read some postings back in 2002/2006 about running R on multiple core > CPUs. The answer was basically separate processes work fine, but > parallelization needs to be implemented using snow/rmpi. Are the answers > still the same? > > I ask because we are about to order a laptop running Windows for a new > staff member. Some advice on the following would be helpful. > It will be ordered with Vista, with a free upgrade to Windows 7. It will > have 8GB of memory > > A quad core CPU costs about AUD$1100 more than the fastest (Intel T9900-6M > Cache, 3.06 GHz) dual core CPU. > I'm wondering if there is value in ordering the quad core. We are looking > at a time frame of 3-4 years. > > Is anyone aware of near future plans to implement some form or > parallelization that would more or less be hidden from the normal user? > > It is anticipated that analysis of Next Gen sequence data will be > important. > > I've read the Windows FAQ about running R under Vista. We will probably > start with Vista. I've read some posts in R-devel indicating people are > running R under Windows 7. Is it safe to assume that R will run under > Windows 7 after it is released? > > We are hoping to make use the 8GB of memory. Am I right in assuming that > when the 64 bit version of Windows 7 is available, it will allow R users to > make good use of the 8GB of memory. Does this happen under the current > higher end versions of 64 bit Vista? > > cheers, > > Keith > > ======================== > Keith Satterley > Bioinformatics Division > The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research > Parkville, Melbourne, > Victoria, Australia > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
