[Rd] Windows Laptop specification query

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009, Sean O'Riordain wrote:

> 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

Yes, but 64-bit builds can be used on Windows -- that needs commercial 
compilers and there are commercial vendors of such builds.

Even with the CRAN binary, a 64-bit version of Windows offers double 
the memory over a (vanilla) 32-bit version.

> 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

There are several packages that parallelize their computations with 
MPI etc, and others that help with parallelization (papply, foreach, 
gputools, ....).  And apart from Rmpi/rpvm/snow there is also 
'multicore', but not on Windows.  See the R-sig-hpc list for follow up 
on such issues.

As for Vista vs Windows 7, this is not the right list but Windows 7 
behaves just like a version of Vista as far as we have explored it 
(and the current rw-FAQ includes it and Server 2008 in the Vista 
section).

Many of us have bought dual quad-core servers in the last year or so: 
that includes Uwe Ligges' winbuilder machine.  I suspect most of the 
usage is separate R jobs running simultaneously: certainly that is the 
case in my dept (where there are at least 6 8-core servers running R 
jobs).

>
> Kind regards,
> Sean
>
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:40 AM, Keith Satterley <keith at 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
>>
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>>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595