[R-sig-hpc] HPC with standard R functions

[Simone Ruzza]

Dear list,

apologies for the total beginner's question, but I am very new to HPC.
I am confronted with a large data analysis job that requires using
functions available for contributed packages, that I did not write
myself.
I would like to speed up the process of analysis and I am considering
parallel computing or a cluster. As far as I understand, it is that it
is not it is always possible to parallelize R code to be executed on a
cluster. This depends on the computing task i.e. whether it is
iterative.  My question is: is it possible to speed up the execution
time of a function (e.g. some model fitting function), which includes
low-level functions? I am not looking for any solutions that I have
already found on the web that show for example, how to use the
snowfall package (e.g. use sfLapply) to perform an iterative task. In
my case it appears that I would have to re-write a large amount of
code myself, which to me seems to be equivalent to re-inventing the
wheel.  Apologies for the generality of my question, due to my
ignorance on the subject. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best wishes,

Simone