[OS X] Ferret memory usage

[Andy Jacobson]

Howdy,

	Four interesting messages of a thread regarding memory usage of  
Ferret on OSX.  Source was the ferret_users mailing list, check there  
for possibility of more.

	-Andy

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Hiroyuki Tomita <tomita at mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp>
> Date: January 26, 2006 2:17:14 AM MST
> To: ferret_users at noaa.gov
> Subject: [ferret_users] memory problem on Mac
>
> Dear Ferreters,
>
> I am using Ferret v5.70 on Mac OS X 10.3.
> Although 4.5 GB physical memory is installed in my Mac,
> I have a trouble about memory when I tried to allocate much memory
> (ex. 500 Mega word = 2GB) as following.
>
>         NOAA/PMEL TMAP
>         FERRET v5.70 (alpha)
>         Mac OS X 10.3.4 - 10/08/04
>         26-Jan-06 17:25
>
> yes? set memory/size=500
> Cached data cleared from memory
> *** malloc: vm_allocate(size=2000003072) failed (error code=3)
> *** malloc[2950]: error: Can't allocate region
> Unable to allocate 500.000000 Mwords of memory.
> Restoring previous memory of 6.400000 Mwords.
> yes?
>
>
> Also, in the same Mac,
> Ferret can allocate 400 Mega word memory.
>
> Is there any advises or comments?
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Hiroyuki Tomita
>
>
Begin forwarded message:

> From: "William S. Kessler" <William.S.Kessler at noaa.gov>
> Date: January 26, 2006 7:37:19 AM MST
> To: Hiroyuki Tomita <tomita at mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp>
> Cc: ferret_users <oar.pmel.ferret_users at noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [ferret_users] memory problem on Mac
>
> That's interesting.
>
> I run Ferret on 2 Macs (G5 desktop with 5.5Gb physical memory and  
> G4 powerbook with 1.25Gb), and routinely allocate 500MW of memory  
> to Ferret on both machines. (Despite the fact that the powerbook  
> has much less actual memory than that!). Some experimentation shows  
> that I can SET MEMORY/SI=[556 on the powerbook and 586 on the G5].  
> Anything more than that gives me the same error you describe. The  
> fact that the memory limits on both machines are the same gives me  
> the impression that this limit is not based on the physical memory  
> but on some other factor.
>
> By the way, testing shows that the G5 is about 3-4 times faster  
> than the G4 laptop for Ferret operations.
>
> Billy K
>
>
>
> On Jan 26, 2006, at 1:17 AM, Hiroyuki Tomita wrote:
>
>> Dear Ferreters,
>>
>> I am using Ferret v5.70 on Mac OS X 10.3.
>> Although 4.5 GB physical memory is installed in my Mac,
>> I have a trouble about memory when I tried to allocate much memory
>> (ex. 500 Mega word = 2GB) as following.
>>
>>         NOAA/PMEL TMAP
>>         FERRET v5.70 (alpha)
>>         Mac OS X 10.3.4 - 10/08/04
>>         26-Jan-06 17:25
>>
>> yes? set memory/size=500
>> Cached data cleared from memory
>> *** malloc: vm_allocate(size=2000003072) failed (error code=3)
>> *** malloc[2950]: error: Can't allocate region
>> Unable to allocate 500.000000 Mwords of memory.
>> Restoring previous memory of 6.400000 Mwords.
>> yes?
>>
>>
>> Also, in the same Mac,
>> Ferret can allocate 400 Mega word memory.
>>
>> Is there any advises or comments?
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Hiroyuki Tomita
>>
>>
>>
>>
Begin forwarded message:

> From: Rob Scott <rscott at utig.ig.utexas.edu>
> Date: January 26, 2006 8:37:52 AM MST
> To: "William S. Kessler" <William.S.Kessler at noaa.gov>, Hiroyuki  
> Tomita <tomita at mercury.oi.u-tokai.ac.jp>
> Cc: ferret_users <oar.pmel.ferret_users at noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [ferret_users] memory problem on Mac
>
>
>
> I was running ferret v5.6 on a linux machine with 3GB memory, and  
> was limited to
> set memory/size=500
>
> or there abouts.
>
> rob
>
>
> At 08:37 AM 1/26/2006, William S. Kessler wrote:
>> That's interesting.
>>
>> I run Ferret on 2 Macs (G5 desktop with 5.5Gb physical memory and G4
>> powerbook with 1.25Gb), and routinely allocate 500MW of memory to
>> Ferret on both machines. (Despite the fact that the powerbook has
>> much less actual memory than that!). Some experimentation shows that
>> I can SET MEMORY/SI=[556 on the powerbook and 586 on the G5].
>> Anything more than that gives me the same error you describe. The
>> fact that the memory limits on both machines are the same gives me
>> the impression that this limit is not based on the physical memory
>> but on some other factor.
>>
>> By the way, testing shows that the G5 is about 3-4 times faster than
>> the G4 laptop for Ferret operations.
>>
>> Billy K
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 26, 2006, at 1:17 AM, Hiroyuki Tomita wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Ferreters,
>>>
>>> I am using Ferret v5.70 on Mac OS X 10.3.
>>> Although 4.5 GB physical memory is installed in my Mac,
>>> I have a trouble about memory when I tried to allocate much memory
>>> (ex. 500 Mega word = 2GB) as following.
>>>
>>>         NOAA/PMEL TMAP
>>>         FERRET v5.70 (alpha)
>>>         Mac OS X 10.3.4 - 10/08/04
>>>         26-Jan-06 17:25
>>>
>>> yes? set memory/size=500
>>> Cached data cleared from memory
>>> *** malloc: vm_allocate(size=2000003072) failed (error code=3)
>>> *** malloc[2950]: error: Can't allocate region
>>> Unable to allocate 500.000000 Mwords of memory.
>>> Restoring previous memory of 6.400000 Mwords.
>>> yes?
>>>
>>>
>>> Also, in the same Mac,
>>> Ferret can allocate 400 Mega word memory.
>>>
>>> Is there any advises or comments?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>> Hiroyuki Tomita
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> Rob Scott
> Research Associate
> Institute for Geophysics
> University of Texas at Austin
> 4412 Spicewood Springs Rd.
> Building 600
> Austin, TX
> 78759
>
> Office: +1-512-471-0375
Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ryo Furue <furue at hawaii.edu>
> Date: January 26, 2006 1:28:38 PM MST
> To: ferret_users at noaa.gov
> Subject: Re: [ferret_users] memory problem on Mac
>
> Hi Ferret users,
>
> | I was running ferret v5.6 on a linux machine with 3GB memory,
> | and was limited to set memory/size=500
>
> For (ordinary) Linux, it seems that memory is limited to 2GiB per
> process no matter how large the physical memory is.  This limitation
> is hard-wired in the kernel.  You could raise the limit nearly
> to 4GiB by modifying the kernel.  (Or, you can switch to a 64-bit
> kernel. But I'm not sure you can get a 64-bit Ferret in that case.)
> I'm not sure about Mac OS.  I think I heard the limit is raised
> to 3GB or so as of Mac OS 10.3 .
>
> Ryo
> -------------
> 2GiB = 2 x 2^30 ~= 537 x 4 x 10^6 = 537 x 10^6 words

--
Andy Jacobson

andy.jacobson at noaa.gov

NOAA/ESRL/GMD
325 Broadway, R/GMD1
Boulder, CO 80305