[R] [OT] R on Atlas library

[Matthias Gondan]

Dear List,

I am aware this is slightly off-topic, but I am sure there are people who already had the problem and who perhaps solved it.

I am running long-lasting model fits using constrOptim command. At work
there is a linux computer (Quad Core, debian) on which I already have
compiled R and Atlas, in the hope that things will go faster on that
machine.

Atlas offers the possibility to be compiled for multiple cores, I used
that option, but without success. Performance meter ("top") for Linux
shows 25% CPU usage, and there is no loss of performance if I run
4 instances of R doing heavy matrix multiplications. Performance drops
when a 5th instance of R is doing the same job, so I assume my attempt
was not successful.

I am sure I did something wrong. Is there anybody who sucessfully
runs R with Atlas and all processors? A short description of the
necessary steps would be helpful.

Searching around the internet was not very encourageing. Some people
wrote that it is not so simple to have Atlas fully exploit a multicore
computer.

I hope this is not too unspecific.

Best wishes,

Matthias

-- 
Dr. rer. nat. Matthias Gondan
Institut für Psychologie
Universität Regensburg
D-93050 Regensburg
Tel. 0941-943-3856
Fax 0941-943-3233
Email: matthias.gondan at psychologie.uni-regensburg.de
http://www.psychologie.uni-r.de/Greenlee/team/gondan/gondan.html 
--